Governor signs bill making Illinois first state to ban microbeads
Source: Chicago Tribune
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation Sunday banning the manufacture and sale of personal care products containing synthetic plastic microbeads.
Banning microbeads will help ensure clean waters across Illinois and set an example for our nation to follow, Quinn said. Lake Michigan and the many rivers and lakes across our state are among our most important natural resources. We must do everything necessary to safeguard them.
The new law bans the manufacture of personal care products containing microbeads by the end of 2017, the sale of personal care products and the manufacture of over the counter drugs by the end of 2018, and the sale of over the counter drugs by the end of 2019.
Environmentalists have said the non-biodegradable plastic particles used as exfoliants in many facial cleansers and soaps slip through sewage system filters and pile up in waterways, where they suck up toxins and harm wildlife. Preliminary studies in Lake Michigan have found millions of microbeads.
Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-governor-signs-bill-making-illinois-first-state-to-ban-microbeads-20140608,0,2136529.story
Atman
(31,464 posts)I can see maybe a year or so...but five years? B.S.
JVS
(61,935 posts)and need the time to clear out the inventories.
SkyDaddy7
(6,045 posts)takes time to ramp down & find replacements so as not to upset the economics & cost people their jobs. Or it could be just to milk a few more years of profit. Or a little of both.
SevenSixtyTwo
(255 posts)dug some of these micro beads out of my gums last month. They were in the whitening tooth paste I was using. She said to use plain old Crest or something instead. Good for Gov. Quinn.
Owl
(3,647 posts)3-D White Arctic Fresh
Wabbajack_
(1,300 posts)Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)Leme
(1,092 posts)I had missed microbeads as an environmental issue.
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Sadly it was not missed because of my viewing of major tv network and PBS news. I just never saw it as a topic. perhaps I missed it.
edit: I guess CBS did something in February once. Looks like NY has some legisalation on it. I may have heard something about these beads on a Dr. Oz show or a Kathie Le and Hoda segment ( which probably was not environmental).
tanyev
(42,661 posts)Crap. Didn't realize they were in some toothpastes, either. What moron thought that would be good idea????
Leme
(1,092 posts)of larger plastics breaking down and creating "plastic" fish and such.
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Correct?
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)The shelf life of plastics may be a lot longer than originally believed. It survives Arctic ice entrapment and having tons of weight on it in landfills. Now, on Hawaiis shores, plastic is being found in rock form. The components of a new type of rock include sand, seashells, volcanic rock, coral and plastic.
A geologist at London, Canadas University of Western Ontario, Patricia Corcoran and the captain of Alguita, an oceanographic research ship, Charles Moore, made their discovery on a Big Island beach. They are calling these rocks plastiglomerates. In GSA Today this month, they published a report regarding their findings. The two scientists believe that the rocks are formed when humans melt plastic in their campfires.
The scientists do point out, however, that wherever a hot enough heat source is present in the same place as large amounts of plastic waste, the potentiality is there for plastiglomerates to form. Lava flows and forest fires would be ideal. Still hot, melted plastic works as a sort of glue, binding together whatever else is in the vicinity. In the right circumstances, the melted plastic can pour into the crevices and cracks in large rocks.
http://guardianlv.com/2014/06/a-new-rock-in-hawaii-is-made-of-plastic/
Leme
(1,092 posts)proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)mopinko
(70,295 posts)it is because kelly cassidy is not your state representative.
Uncle Joe
(58,506 posts)Thanks for the thread, alp.
surrealAmerican
(11,367 posts)... if we want to keep our waterways safe.
k & r & kudos to Gov. Quinn
greymattermom
(5,754 posts)Most plastics contain environmental estrogens. Their health impact is mostly unknown but likely large. I recently did a study showing that xenoestrogens can contribute to migraine, a huge and costly health problem with little treatment options. Couldn't get funding to continue the work.