Microbeads

Do you know that there are microbeads in health and cosmetic products such as in toothpaste and facial foam? Microbeads are defined as synthetic polymer particles that, at the time of their manufacture, are smaller than 1mm (1). They could be in different forms of particles including solid, hollow, amorphous, solubilized, etc. The problem is that they are too small to be collected in the wastewater treatment system and so they could reach the rivers and oceans and pose a threat to fresh and marine life. Their presence in pelagic and benthic ecosystems are potentially bioavailable for many organisms such as jelly fish might ingest them as zooplankton and fish eggs (2) and marine worms might also ingest them as their food then fish or other predators eat marine worms (3). These microbeads will then bioaccumulate into the food web and the human who are the top of the food web will have the highest consequence from microbead pollution. In addition, once they are in the water, they could attract persistent organic pollutants like flame retardants and other industrial chemicals that strongly linked to human health problems such as cancer (4). A single plastic microbead can be one million times more toxic than the water around it.

Could you imagine what will happen with our environment in the long run if they are not being treated well? Let’s start thinking about possible mitigations to these and get our surroundings well known about the impacts too. Stay tuned for the next post about microbeads treatment.

1. https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2021-09/microplastic-beach-protocol_sept-2021.pdf
2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X17301650
3. https://animalsaustralia.org/latest-news/plastic-microbeads-poisoning-marine-life/
4. https://www.5gyres.org/microbeads#:~:text=Once%20in%20the%20water%2C%20plastic,than%20the%20water%20around%20it.

By: Moe Thazin Shwe – SOLEN Research Associate – IPC panel member

Article#: SOLEN-IPC-0002

Date: 3 November 2022

The Former Article: https://solenvn.com/en/short-article_01-plastic-waste/
The Latter Article: https://solenvn.com/en/treatment-of-microplastic-pollution/