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Microbead ban moving too slowly: advocate

[micdotcom]

Environment Canada is appealing for public input as the agency moves toward a federal ban on microbeads in cosmetic products on Canadian store shelves.

But the glacial pace of progress toward that ban is frustrating advocates who say millions of bits of plastic will continue to clog our waterways for years to come.

“It’s not consistent with the high priority that the government says it’s placing on sustainability and the environment,” says Pierre Sadik, a lawyer for the environmental group Ecojustice.

Last March, MPs voted unanimously in favour of “immediate measures” to add microbeads to the federal list of toxic substances under the chemicals management plan.

The proposed legislation would see a ban on manufacturing take effect at the end of December 2017. A ban on sales would be in place at the end of December 2018.

Each of those lag six months behind similar bans in the United States, Sadik tells Yahoo Canada News.

“It’s a shame that Canada would have another half year of millions of microbeads going into our lakes and rivers,” he says.

“There’s no good reason why the government of Canada can’t line up the restriction dates with those in the U.S.”

Environment Canada wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Hurting aquatic life

Microbeads are tiny spheres of plastic like grains of sand that are used largely in facial cleansers, toothpaste, soap and exfoliants. Studies have shown widespread microplastic pollution in the Great Lakes, in particular.

Last July, Environment Canada completed its scientific review and consultation with experts on the impact they’re having on the environment.

“In laboratory studies, microbeads have shown adverse short-term and long-term effects in aquatic organisms,” the review says.

“Scientific literature indicates that microbeads are readily taken up by a variety of organisms including fish, mussels and several types of zooplankton and have shown adverse short-term and long-term effects in aquatic organisms.”

It concluded that microbeads are toxic to the environment.

They have been deemed a priority but there is a backlog of tens of thousands of chemicals awaiting assessment under the federal chemicals management plan.

Last year, the government committed $490 million toward its goal of getting 4,300 priority chemicals assessed by 2020.

There is no known way to remove microbeads once they’ve made their way from household drains, through the sewage systems that are not able to filter the tiny bits of plastic and into lakes and rivers.

“It’s a bit like trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube, which is why microbeads are so dangerous and problematic,” Sadik says.

Several cosmetic companies have promised to voluntarily eliminate microbeads but few have. Environment Canada’s review found that five of 14 members of the Canadian Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association had done so.

The annual quantities of microbeads reportedly used by various companies in Canada, according to the review, ranges from 30 kilograms a year to 68,000 kilograms.

As the U.S. federal government slowly moves its Microbeads-Free Water legislation ahead, nine states already have laws banning the sale and manufacture of personal care products with microbeads.

In Canada, an Ontario bill has passed second reading.

Environment Canada is accepting public comment on the proposed ban until March 10.

“Why ask? Just ban the plastic waste going into our food chain,” @Saskboy posted on Twitter.

Ecojustice will submit to Environment Canada during the public consultation phase.

“We’ll certainly be suggesting the government should live up to its environmental and sustainability rhetoric and fall into line with what the U.S. is doing, and perhaps even quicker than that,” he says.

But microbeads represent only about 20 per cent of the microplastic pollution plaguing lakes and rivers, Sadik says.

Small bits of plastic from larger items like coffee cup lids, plastic bags and plastic bottles are an even bigger problem and, while some individual cities have introduced bans, the federal government has made no such move, he says.

“The plastic industry usually pushed back pretty hard,” he says.