Plastic Microbeads

I'd never heard of plastic microbeads until this week when the media told us about the harm they're doing to the environment and ultimately we end up eating the damn things! Apparently these little plastic balls, well tiny really, are put into products like toothpaste and shower gels and skin cleansers to make the product mildly abrasive. Well, that's dubious in itself, I mean exfoliation might have a case, but wearing the enamel off your teeth, putting them in your mouth and maybe swallowing a few, ugh.

Most of course get flushed away down the sink or shower, into our rivers and into our oceans. They are ingested by tiny sea creatures and plankton, clogging their guts and probably killing off part of the food supply our fish and whales depend on. However, moving on, many of these smaller creatures, containing the plastic balls are eaten while still alive by the fish we then catch and eat, see where this is going?

And why do manufacturers include them? I don't know, but I'll take a little wager they're cheaper than other ingredients, that they are fillers to make the product more profitable and health and the environment be damned. It's all about money until they're found out, which they have been so ban the damn things pronto I say.

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