By David Suzuki, CTV News Ottawa, April 22, 2015
How much are whiter teeth and smoother skin worth to you? Are they worth the
water and fish in the Great Lakes? The cormorants that nest along the shore? The
coral reefs that provide refuge and habitat for so much ocean life? Are they
worth the oceans that give us half the oxygen we breathe, or the myriad other
creatures the seas support? If you use personal-care products such as
exfoliators, body scrubs and toothpastes containing microbeads, those are the
costs you could be paying. The tiny bits of plastic - less than five millimetres
in diameter, and usually from one-third to one millimetre - are used as
scrubbing agents. Now they're turning up everywhere, especially in oceans, lakes
and along shorelines. They aren't biodegradable. via
Science Matters: Microbeads are a sign of our plastic consumer madness | CTV
Ottawa News.