Makeup May Be Banned in New York
An effort to ban water-clogging microbeads might inadvertently make many kinds of makeup illegal in New York City. The city council is working on a proposal to ban cosmetics containing microbeads — minuscule plastic dots that have become a common additive in soaps, facial washes and other skin cleansers because of their exfoliating power.
All those tiny plastic beads have become a problem because they are easily ingested by fish and not so easily filtered out by water treatment systems. Cities and states around the country (the Feds too) are in the midst of banning microbeads and the cosmetics industry is developing alternatives that will provide the same level of cleanse without the problems.
In New York, though, the industry is worried the proposed ban could have unintended consequences.
According to the New York Post, “in the wording of the council bill, a ‘microbead’ is defined as “any manufactured particle of plastic that measures five millimeters or less in size and is added to a personal care product.”
That definition could include a number of other materials, like plastic polymers, that are found in everything from mascara to lipstick.
This article by Eric Boehm is from Watchdog.org, a project of the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity.