A closer look at microbeads

Plastic microbeads in cosmetics are getting into oceans and waterways. They soak up poison and get into the food chain. Many organisations are pushing for awareness and banning the microbead (there are links at the end of this post). This is a serious enough problem that governments are starting to ban them.

I took a closer look at some facial scrubs for myself. I have a fairly basic USB microscope so I examined three products with microbeads in them. Last time I looked at a “natural” product:

kiwi2
This one with the natural goodness of kiwifruit and aloe vera
kiwi3
and microbeads.

 

 

This one lets you know it contains “powerful microbeads”:

It's got some jagged blue bits (plastic again I'm guessing) and some clear round beads.
It’s got some jagged blue bits of plastic and some clear round beads.

Here’s one of those beautifully round beads next to a 2 millimeter grid (each square is about 1/12 inch wide). The bead is less than a millimeter wide.

g__ier5

 

In the third product, “tiny spherical beads gently buff, refine and smooth”.

n__io3

 

These bits of plastic aren’t so spherical.

This product felt very gritty. I diluted it with water to get a clearer look at the beads, then let the bits of plastic settle. Then I put the settled sediment on a glass microscope slide.

Besides the bigger bits, at 20x you could just make out some very small dots – here they are with the 2 mm grid:

At 20 times magnification next to a 2 millimeter (about 1/12 inch) grid.
At 20 times magnification next to a 2 millimeter (about 1/12 inch) grid.

All the images above are at 20 times magnification. Lets take a closer look at these tiny dots.

Here they are at 200 times magnification. The largest ones are about 1/10 of a millimeter wide and the smallest (arrowed) less than 1/100 of a millimeter, or ten micrometers.
Here they are at 200 times magnification. The largest ones are about 1/10 of a millimeter wide and the smallest (arrowed) less than 1/100 of a millimeter, or ten micrometers.

So these must be the “tiny spherical beads”. According the the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) microbeads can be as small as one micrometer.

Links

Microbeads and microplastics in cosmetic and personal care products. Oliver Bennett. House of Commons Briefing Paper May 2016. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:LjCahOMK214J:researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7510/CBP-7510.pdf+&cd=12&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au

Plastic in Cosmetics. UNEP Fact Sheet. Are we polluting the environment through our personal care? http://unep.org/gpa/documents/publications/PlasticinCosmetics2015Factsheet.pdf

Microbeads – A Science Summary. July 2015. Where the Canadian Government recommends listing microbeads as a toxic product. http://www.ec.gc.ca/ese-ees/ADDA4C5F-F397-48D5-AD17-63F989EBD0E5/Microbeads_Science%20Summary_EN.pdf

For more links see Putting Poison in the Pantry (Fireside Science).