Plastic microbeads are so small that water treatment plants are unable to filter them out of municipal waste water. Credit: FILE PHOTO

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is once again pushing for legislation that would ban the use of tiny plastic particles in cosmetics, facial scrubs, and other personal care items.

Schneiderman announced this morning that he’s resubmitted the Microbead-Free Waters Act to state Assembly and Senate leadership. He first proposed legislation last year, and the Assembly passed it unanimously. The Senate, however, never took up matching legislation.

Researchers have detected the tiny plastic microbeads in all of the Great Lakes, and Lake Ontario appears to have the highest concentration of them. They’ve also found the microbeads in important water bodies across New York, including Cayuga Lake, Oneida Lake, the Erie Canal, and Mohawk River, according to a press release from the AG’s Office.

The microbeads can’t be filtered out by waste water treatment plants, in part because they are so tiny. In the water bodies, they can attract other pollutants, which is a problem since fish mistake them for food. Other animals eat the fish, which passes the pollutants through food webs.

This article appears in Feb 18-24, 2015.

Covers county government and whatever else comes my way. Greyhound dad; vegetarian; attempted photographer with a love for film and fixer; sometimes cyclist.

One reply on “AG wants to ban the beads”

  1. It’s 2015. People continue to deny scientific facts regarding climate, evolution, medicine -vaccines and genetic research. People continue to base personal decisions on fear and denial. Instead of actively preventing disasters, they continue to react with band aid measures and never use the knowledge available. Instead of progressing , moving back to the DarkAges is the new comfort zone. There is such a loathing for education, critical thinking and diverse thought which is evident in the laws created and upheld by policymakers. Individual and corporate rights, no matter how oppressive or discriminatory supercede the rights of the society in general. My ethics are internal and I don’t want your beliefs, superstitions or denials to prohibit the progess of future generations–as it has in the past. The world isn’t flat, the earth
    Isn’t the center of the universe. Dinosaurs did not exist with humans. It’s absurd that we are forced to tolerate and respect falsehoods and opinions while scientific facts can be discarded or ignored by even our policymakers. And it’s those very people creating the educational system today. America is becoming the Land of the Ignorant

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