NY officials keep fight against microbeads alive

New York officials have ramped up their fight against microbeads despite unsuccessful legislative efforts to ban the sale of personal care products containing the sponge-like substance.

State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand led a press conference Monday on Long Island to push for a ban of the sand grain-sized plastic orbs found in facial scrubs, body wash, hand cleansers and toothpaste that can collect potentially harmful toxins.

The microbeads are so small that after they get rinsed down the drain, they avoid capture by wastewater treatment plants and make it into major bodies of water, such as the Hudson River and Long Island Sound. Once there, fish and other animals that ingest the microbeads can be exposed to whatever pollutants have been absorbed.

Schneiderman and Gillibrand have helped catapult near-identical legislation in the state Legislature and U.S. Congress, respectively, called the Microbead-Free Waters Act, both of which would prohibit the distribution and sale of products containing the absorbent beads.

The congressional bill was introduced and transferred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on May 21, where it has stalled.

The state Assembly passed its version of the bill in April, but the bill did not make it out of the Senate during the 2015 legislative session that ended in June.

The push for federal and state bills came shortly after a report released by Schneiderman”™s office said that 74 percent of samples taken at 34 state and private water treatment plants detected microbeads. The study, initiated by the state attorney general’s office, was conducted by State University of New York at Fredonia and nonprofit New York Water Environment Association.

Wastewater treatment plants in Yonkers and Port Chester ”“ as part of the Westchester County Department of Environmental Facilities ”“ were tested in the report and found positive for discharging microbeads in the Hudson River and Long Island Sound.

Illinois has banned consumer products that have plastic microbeads, and 13 states, including New York, are considering banning the synthetic beads. Personal care product manufacturers, including Unilever, Johnson & Johnson and L”™Oreal, have announced they will phase out the use of microbeads, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.