Microbeads and the ocean's plastic smog

Near the surface of the waters off the Jersey Shore is a drifting veil of smog, of the sort that threatens the health of oceans the world over.

Scientists say the debris arises from plastics, including items commonly stored in the typical home bathroom or kitchen cabinet. Chances are, according to these observers, the dangerous toxins in the materials could eventually make their way to your dinner table. You know the next stop after that.

Forget those images of island-like garbage patches congealing on the water's surface, the earth's oceans are under attack from man-made debris practically impossible to see with the naked eye. Currents carry these pollutants, like a slow-moving cloud stretching across the sky.

Millions of pounds of these microscopic plastic fragments are floating off New Jersey's shore, absorbing toxins and infiltrating the food chain, according to government researchers.

Over time, plastics break down down into smaller and smaller pieces as sunlight and battering waves take their toll, becoming what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration terms a microplastic,

Some microplastics are designed to be that small, like the "microbeads" used in body washes or facial cleansers. The problem is, microbeads are so tiny that they can slip through municipal water filtration systems that cleanse used water before releasing it back into the environment.

A new state law was supposed to help curb this part of the problem, but the law suffers from a loophole that water-quality advocates say is so large a trawler could pass through it. They wonder about the long-term health and environmental effects of so much plastic being in the ecosystem.

A threat to our food is a threat to us

An estimated 2.2 million pounds of microplastics, including microbeads, are floating on the surface of the North Atlantic, according to Jessica Donohue, a researcher from the Sea Education Association. That's the equivalent of 79 million water bottles lingering atop international waters between the East Coast and Europe and northern Africa.

"These particles are so small that they can be ingested by the smallest organisms, plankton, and then make their way up the food chain to us," said Sherri Mason, a professor at the State University of New York in Fredonia.

Research has shown that these plastics act as a sponge for toxins in the water, making the tiny fragments a potentially significant risk to human health.

Microplastics are a risk to absorb industrial pollutants, such as known carcinogens like PCBs and dioxins, but the science is too young to draw a link between human poisonings and microplastic ingestion. Such a connection could take decades to establish, but that is no consolation.

For more than 20 years, the seafood industry and food safety regulators grappled with the presence of mercury in fish before ultimately advising pregnant women and young children avoid eating certain kinds of fish.

"The idea that we can somehow separate ourselves from what's happening in the environment and think that it's not coming back to bite us in our butts is an illusion," Mason said. "If it's in the water, it's in us."

New Jersey's ban on microbeads: Is it enough?

New Jersey became the second state, after Illinois, to block microbeads, with a ban signed into law earlier this year. Under the law, production of substances containing microbeads would be outlawed by January 2018 and the sale of those products would be prohibited by January 2020. (President Obama signed federal legislation sponsored by Congressman Frank Pallone on Monday banning plastic microbeads from bath products like soaps and body washes beginning on January 2018).

Unilever, which owns the brands Dove and Lever 2000, says that it stopped using microbeads in its products as of the beginning of this year. Personal care manufacturers Proctor & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson have both said they intend to phase microbeads out of their products within the next few years in response to these environmental concerns.

But environmental advocates worry that language in New Jersey's ban will allow the personal care products industry to circumvent the spirit of the law.

"There's a loophole," said Sandra Meola, spokeswoman for NY/NJ Baykeeper. "One word that kind of tears a hole right through the bill and that's 'non-biodegradable'.”

Bioplastics, which are made from sugarcane or corn, are becoming more commonplace and can be used in place of petroleum-based microbeads.

Biodegradable plastics, Meola said, can only earn their name under controlled conditions — exposure to 140-degree heat, for example — that are not possible in the oceans.Thus, exempting them from the law almost entirely undercuts the ban, she said.

The most recent states to prohibit microbeads, California and Connecticut, included bioplastic-based microbeads in their bans.

What you can do

Mason's research has revealed extensive water pollution in the Great Lakes and just how easily microbeads travel through your shower drain, past water treatment plants and out into streams, lakes and the ocean.

On average, a typical water treatment facility will let pass 4 million particles (75 percent are smaller than a millimeter) of plastic every day, she said during a recent conference at Brookdale Community College.

Yet these microplastics are in abundance in the Great Lakes, especially the downstream lakes. A sample taken from Lake Ontario outside of Toronto showed that 1.3 million plastic particles per square kilometer, or about 1,200 per square inch, were floating at the surface.

Mason's team examined 26 species of fish, including one bird that feeds only on fish, in the Great Lakes to see how pervasive the plastic pollution was. How many of these fish would prove to be contaminated?

"Every single one had plastic. Every single one. There was not a species of Great Lakes fish that was immune to plastic," she said.

So what can we do to slow the nearly 8 million tons of plastic waste that finds its way into the ocean every year?

1. Cross products containing microbeads off your shopping list today, not four years from now when the state ban takes effect

Next time you're choosing a personal care product, such as a body wash, look for the words "polyethelyne" or "propylene" on the back of the box, under the inactive ingredients section of the label. If you see either one of those words, that means the product contains petroleum-based microbeads.

2. Stop using plastic bottles, utensils and straws

Between 2011 and 2014, volunteers plucked nearly 100,000 straws off New Jersey beaches during semiannual sweeps organized by Clean Ocean Action at more than 70 locations in New Jersey. They found 12,000 bottles and 4,000 plastic utensils in the sand in 2014 alone.

3. Don't litter

About 80 percent of marine litter, most of that being plastic, originated from litter on land, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

4. Clean up after others

Volunteer for beach sweeps in the spring, or bend over, grab that empty bag of chips blowing down the street and put it in the trash.