Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Exfoliating face washes and scrubs rough skin, leaving it feeling smooth and soft. This feeling is why Kelsey Simpson, Spring Hill sophomore, uses Clean & Clear Morning Burst facial scrub every day.
“It makes my face feel really clean, like it actually feels soft,” Simpson said.
Though these little beads may feel good on skin, they can cause problems with the environment and human health when they pass through water treatment systems.
Some of the most popular facial exfoliating brands, including most Clean & Clear scrubbing products, contain plastic called polyethylene. The plastic is in the form of tiny scrubbing microbeads, which can lead to pollution in nearby water supplies because the plastic cannot biodegrade.
Stephen Randtke, professor of civil engineering, said the scientific community was concerned about nanoparticles making their way through water treatment systems. Plastic can be broken up into smaller pieces of plastic, but it never goes away.
Mike Tate, chief of the bureau of water for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said plastics could be broken down into a number of compounds that could prove hazardous to human health, but he was not sure of the exact effects.
“I don’t think there has been enough study and looking into it yet to really look into the issues that exist,” Tate said.
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Facial scrubs that contain polyethylene plastic on their ingredient lists
Aveeno Skin Brightening Daily Scrub
Clean & Clear Soft Purifying Cleanser Scrub
Clean & Clear Daily Pore Cleanser
Clean & Clear Blackhead Clearing Scrub
Clearasil Stayclear Daily Facial Scrub
Neutrogena Deep Clean Gentle Scrub
L’Oreal Pure Zone Pore Unclogging Scrub Cleanser
Dove Daily Exfoliating Wash
Natural Alternatives
Except for St. Ives and Bioré, the following scrubs are available at the Merc. All scrubs contain natural exfoliating materials derived from walnut, sunflower, sugar, peach, almond and more.
St. Ives Apricot Scrub
Bioré Detoxify Daily Scrub
Burt’s Bees Peach and Willowbark Deep Pore Scrub
Kiss My Face Scrub
MyChelle Dermaceuticals Fruit Enzyme Scrub
Emerita Exfoliating Face Cleanser
Desert Essence Gentle Stimulating Facial Scrub
Avalon Organics Exfoliating Enzyme Scrub
Sensuous Beauty Cleansing Grains with Chick Pea
Aubrey Organics Mask and Scrub with Jojoba Meal and Oatmeal
Companies including Aveeno, Clean & Clear, Clearasil, Neutrogena, L’Oréal and Dove produce facial scrubs that contain polyethylene plastic. Attempts to contact those companies for comment on the use of polyethylene in products were unsuccessful.
Tate said that after the beads were washed down drains, they could potentially make it through waste water treatment systems.
“I would assume there would be a fair amount of them caught and trapped,” Tate said, “but they might be light enough to float and then wouldn’t settle well. Settling is an important part of the treatment process.”
Tate said beads would be washed back into the Kansas River if they made it past the treatment process. The Kansas River connects with the Missouri River, then the Mississippi River, and ultimately empties into the Gulf of Mexico. Plastic beads could add to the degradation of marine life in the Gulf.
According to the American Chemical Society, plastic can easily be ingested by marine animals and can cause health problems with animals because of the persistent presence of plastic. According to a study by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, the world’s oceans contain about 100 million tons of plastic, and 80 percent of the plastic comes from incorrect plastic disposal on land. The foundation said that plastic outweighed zooplankton, which are small animals at the base of the marine food chain, by a ratio of six-to-one, and that marine animals could easily confuse the plastic for food.
Alexis Friskel, body care buyer for the Community Mercantile, 901 Iowa St., said exfoliating washes at the Merc contained only natural ingredients, not plastic. She said she thought MyChelle Dermaceuticals Fruit Enzyme Scrub and Desert Essence scrubs were the most popular face scrubs sold. Friskel said customers at the Merc appreciated the clean products it offered.
“We’ve been very conscious with what we’ve chosen,” Friskel said. “And I think our customers see that.”
— — Edited by Heather Melanson
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Comments
Face scrubs can harm environment, health
Kansas. Where they care about plastic in the water but not coal in the air.
Face scrubs can harm environment, health
Lawrence. Where liberals work each other up to extreme points of view because they have no ideological opposition.
Face scrubs can harm environment, health
Connerm,
Pollution is pollution - nothing ideological about that.
How about I put a few drops of Clean and Clear in coffee every morning? Call me when you start squeezing out Legos for your morning constitution.
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