US bans use of microbeads in beauty products
President Barack Obama has signed into US law the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015, prohibiting the manufacture of rinse-off cosmetics containing plastic microbeads.
The act, which amends section 301 of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, will phase out the manufacture of these products by July 1, 2017, with sales stopped by July 1, 2018. Plastic microbeads are solid plastic particles, less than five millimetres in size, found in many health and beauty products including soap and body scrubs and are designed to remove dry cells from the surface of the skin. However, the use of microbeads has been a contentious issue due to the environmental dangers they pose.
One of the main concerns is that fish often end up consuming the beads once they wash back into the sea after going down plugholes, and this results in toxins further up the food chain. Some cosmetic companies worldwide, including Pai, Lush Cosmetics and Rituals, have already made pledges never to use microbeads in formulations
