Your toothpaste may be irreparably damaging Hong Kong’s marine life – all because of tiny plastic beads
Hong Kong researchers find exfoliating microbeads commonly seen in beauty and personal care products can be devastating to even the toughest of species, which sometimes end up on our plates
Microbeads – the tiny plastic pellets added to many beauty and personal care products for their “exfoliation effect” – can cause irreversible damage to even the toughest of marine species if exposure comes in high enough concentrations, Hong Kong researchers have found.
The study sheds further light on the complicated environmental impact of microplastic pollution in the world’s oceans, which by some estimates contain up to 50 trillion such particles.
Found in products ranging from facial scrubs to toothpastes, microbeads, which are manufactured microplastics, are small enough to be washed down drains and flushed into the ocean, where they can end up in the digestive tracts of fish and other marine creatures that humans eat.
In two separate experiments each lasting two years, researchers at the University of Science and Technology’s division of life sciences exposed two common, pollution-tolerant marine invertebrates to concentrations of microbeads.
Both suffered irremediable impairments to their growth and development.