MICROBEADS & MICROPLASTICS: LAWS WITHOUT DUE DILIGENCE? ROBERT Y. LOCHHEAD THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI

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1 MICROBEADS & MICROPLASTICS: LAWS WITHOUT DUE DILIGENCE? ROBERT Y. LOCHHEAD THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI

2 BEAT THE MICROBEAD INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN IN 2011, THE DUTCH NGO, THE NORTH SEA FOUNDATION, REQUESTED COMPANIES STOP USING MICROBEADS IN THEIR PRODUCTS. COMPANIES REPLIED PRODUCTS MET STRICT SAFETY STANDARDS, MICROBEADS WERE SAFE FOR CONSUMER USE, MICROPLASTICS IN OCEANS COME FROM DEGRADATION OF LARGER PLASTIC DEBRIS, ETC. 2012: THE PLASTIC SOUP FOUNDATION/NORTH SEA FOUNDATION LAUNCHED THE BEAT THE MICROBEAD CAMPAIGN PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5, Acknowledgement: Todd Gouin.

3 BEAT THE MICROBEAD INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN (SUMMARY) PROPOSED PROBLEM: THE MICROBEADS IN COSMETIC PRODUCTS SUCH AS FACIAL SCRUBS ARE FLOWING FROM THE BATHROOM DRAIN INTO THE SEWER SYSTEM. WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS ARE NOT DESIGNED TO FILTER OUT MICROBEADS SO THEREFORE THEY TRAVEL TO THE WORLD S OCEANS WHERE SEA CREATURES EAT MICROBEADS. SINCE THE MARINE LIFE EAT THE MICROBEADS AND WE EAT THE MARINE LIFE, THERE IS A POSSIBILITY THAT WE ARE ALSO ABSORBING MICROBEADS FROM THE FOOD WE EAT. PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5, Acknowledgement: Todd Gouin.

4 RECENT ACTIVITY IN CONGRESS wrt COSMETICS H.R COSMETIC MODERNIZATION AMENDMENTS OF 2015 H.R MICROBEAD-FREE Microbead-Free WATERS ACT OF Waters 2015 Act of 2015 H.R HUMANE COSMETICS ACT H.R SAFE COSMETICS AND PERSONAL CARE PRODUCTS ACT OF 2013 S PERSONAL CARE PRODUCTS SAFETY ACT H.R COSMETIC SAFETY AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2012 PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

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7 BANNING PLASTIC MICROBEADS CA 10/ 2015 CO 3/2015 WI 7/ 2015 IL 6/ 2014 IN 3/ 2015 NY 2014 ME 3/2015 CT 6/2015 NJ 3/2015 MD 5/2015 May 5, PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville

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13 DOUGHTY AND ERIKSEN, TULANE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW JOURNAL 27, 277, (SUMMER 2014) MICROPLASTICS POLUTION: THE CASE FOR A BAN ON MICROPLASTICS IN PERSONAL CARE PRODUCTS MICROPLASTICS FORM: ON LAND BY UV DEGRADATION, FRAGMENTATION AND ROAD ABRASION OF LARGER PLASTIC ARTICLES MAY ENTER THE AQUATIC ENVIRONMENT THROUGH DIRECT RELEASE TEXTILE LAUNDERING MAY PRODUCE MICROFIBERS MICROPLASTICS FROM SANDBLASTING MEDIA MICROBEADS IN COSMETICS SUCH AS FACIAL CLEANSERS AND TOOTHPASTES BY DESIGN PLASTIC MICROBEADS ARE MEANT TO BE DISCARDED IN HOUSEHOLD WATER IN MANY CASES THEY ESCAPE CAPTURE BY MUNICIPAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS (REF TO FENDELL AND SEWELL, MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN 1225, 58, 2009) PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

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15 MICROBEAD MYTHS? PLASTIC MICROBEADS FROM COSMETICS ARE A SIGNIFICANT SOURCE OF POLLUTION WASTEWATER TREATMENTS ARE INCAPABLE OF CAPTURING PLASTIC MICROBEADS PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

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17 WHAT DID FENDELL AND SEWELL DO? PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

18 WHAT DID THE ARTICLE REALLY SAY? PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

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21 1.1 to 1.8 particle per 1,000 liters PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

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23 Found 43,000 particles /square kilometer That corresponds to about 1 particle in 250,000 liters Doughty and Eriksen ( Tulane Law Review, Microbeads may enter waterways through drainage systems or combined sewage overflow events allowing raw sewage to enter local waterways untreated PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

24 MICROBEAD MYTHS? PLASTIC MICROBEADS FROM COSMETICS ARE A SIGNIFICANT SOURCE OF POLLUTION WASTEWATER TREATMENTS ARE INCAPABLE OF CAPTURING PLASTIC MICROBEADS PLASTIC MICROBEADS ARE DANGEROUS TO AQUATIC LIFE BECAUSE THEY ABSORB PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS WHICH TRANSFER TO HUMANS THROUGH THE FOOD CHAIN THEY BLOCK INTESTINES AND KILL A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF MARINE CREATURES PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

25 approximately 1 billion more algae particles than microplastics in every liter of lake water The stomachs of fish caught from Lake Erie and Lake Huron (where high levels of microplastics were reported) contained no microbeads. PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

26 DOUGHTY AND ERIKSEN, TULANE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW JOURNAL 27, 277, (SUMMER 2014) MICROPLASTICS POLUTION: THE CASE FOR A BAN ON MICROPLASTICS IN PERSONAL CARE PRODUCTS MICROPLASTICS IN THE ENVIRONMENT MAY HAVE DELETERIOUS EFFECTS ON WILDLIFE. MANY KINDS OF PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS SORB ONTO PLASTIC WHICH IN SOME CASES IMPACT MARINE ORGANISMS ABILITY TO FUNCTION AND PROCREATE PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

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30 INGESTION OF MICROPLASTICS PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

31 TROPHIC TRANSER In their investigations into the presence of micro-plastic in seven common North Sea fish, Foekema et al. (2013), did not observe the presence of any particles <300µm, implying limited potential for microplastic <100µm to accumulate as they move up the food web. This is consistent with results reported by Choy and Drazen (2013), who do not report any particles <4mm in pelagic predatory fish collected in the central North Pacific. PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

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34 the relative importance of microplastic as a vector of PBT substances to biological organisms is likely of limited importance, relative to other exposure pathways. Nevertheless, a number of data-gaps are identified, largely associated with improving our understanding of the physical fate of microplastic in the environment. PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

35 The POPs present in sea water are slowly absorbed and concentrated in the microplastic fragments. Plastics debris does clean the sea water of the dissolved pollutant chemicals. On being ingested, however, these can become bioavailable to the organisms (Endo et al., 2005). PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

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37 MICROBEAD MYTHS? PLASTIC MICROBEADS FROM COSMETICS ARE A SIGNIFICANT SOURCE OF POLLUTION WASTEWATER TREATMENTS ARE INCAPABLE OF CAPTURING PLASTIC MICROBEADS PLASTIC MICROBEADS ARE DANGEROUS TO AQUATIC LIFE BECAUSE THEY ABSORB PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS WHICH TRANSFER TO HUMANS THROUGH THE FOOD CHAIN THEY BLOCK INTESTINES AND KILL A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF MARINE CREATURES PLASTIC MICROBEADS LAST HUNDREDS OF YEARS IN THE AQUATIC ENVIRONMENT PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

38 MARPOL ANNEX V PROHIBITS SHIPS FROM DUMPING OF PLASTICS IN THE OCEAN PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

39 450 YEARS REPEATED.. What was the origin of these numbers? PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

40 THE IMO POINTED ME TO THE GREEK POSTER SOURCE,,,,but no-one could tell me how these numbers were calculated PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

41 DURABILITY OF PLASTICS AT SEA ( AZZARELLO ET AL, MARINE ECOLOGY PROG: 37, , 1987 HIGH DENSITY POLYETHYLENE IS PHOTO DEGRADABLE: EMBRITTLEMENT AND FRAGMENTATION OCCURS WITHIN 2 TO 3 YEARS AT THE SEA SURFACE CAN BE ACCELERATED TO THREE MONTHS IF ALL ULTRAVIOLET STABILIZERS ARE EXCLUDED (DIXON AND DIXON, 1981) WEHLE, H. S., COLEMAN, F. C. (1983). PLASTICS AT SEA. NATURAL HISTORY, 92, (1983) 20-26; SUGGEST THAT FISHING NETS COULD SURVIVE 50 YEARS IN THE SUBMERGED CONDITION. DURABILITY OF PLASTIC PELLETS IN THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT UNCERTAIN BUT THEY SEEM TO LAST 3-10 YEARS [DERRAIK, MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN 2002] PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville There is a need to accurately determine the lifetime of plastics in the Marine Environment May 5,

42 PET BOTTLES DEGRADE IN SEA AFTER 15 YEARS The degradation potential of PET bottles in the marine environment: An ATR-FTIR based approach C. Ioakeimidis, K. N. Fotopoulou, H. K. Karapanagioti, M. Geraga, C. Zeri, E. Papathanassiou, F. Galgani & G. Papatheodorou Scientific Reports 6, Article number: Published online 22 March, 2016 PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

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50 CONCLUSIONS THE SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE DOES NOT PROVIDE EVIDENCE THAT MICROPLASTIC SPHERES FROM SCRUBBERS AND COSMETICS CAN ESCAPE PROPERLY MANAGED SEWAGE SYSTEMS THERE IS UNCERTAINTY ON WHETHER PLASTIC MICROPARTICLES DAMAGE THE MARINE ECOLOGY THERE IS UNCERTAINTY ON WHETHER PLASTIC PARTICLES ARE BIOMAGNIFIED BY TROPHIC TRANSFER THE MAJOR COSMETIC PLAYERS HAVE ALL PLEDGED TO DILIGENTLY REMOVE PLASTIC MICROPARTICLES FROM THEIR FORMULATIONS PLASTICS ARE POLYMERS, BUT NOT ALL POLYMERS ARE PLASTICS APART FROM A FEW EXCEPTIONS, SUCH AS SCRUBBERS, THE POLYMERIC INGREDIENTS OF COSMETIC FORMULATION ARE NOT PLASTICS. PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

51 GOING FORWARD.. REALIZE THAT BEAT THE BEADS CAMPAIGN WAS MULTINATIONAL SCARE TACTICS FOR POTENTIAL HAZARDS RATHER THAN A BALANCED RISK/BENEFIT ANALYSIS PART OF A LARGER STRATEGY TO PRISE OPEN THE DOOR? NEED A CONCERTED EFFORT TO INFORM THE LAY PUBLIC ON THE SCIENCE AND SAFETY BEHIND COSMETICS REALISTIC RISK/BENEFIT FACTORS CRADLE-TO-CRADLE ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP FOR INGREDIENTS SUPPLIERS SIMULTANEOUSLY EDUCATE THE CONSUMER ENCOURAGE DUE DILIGENCE IN LAW MAKING CONSIDER THE EVIDENCE PCPC Legl Conference, Nashville May 5,

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