Posted on 11/30/2017 2:05:06 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Scientists are calling for a worldwide ban on glitter, warning that the arts and crafts supplies are a hazard to the environment, particularly the ocean.
Dr. Trisia Farrelly, an environmental anthropologist at Massey University in New Zealand, told The Independent that “all glitter” should be banned because it’s microplastic.
“Microplastics are fragments of plastic less than 5 millimetres in length. Their size makes them an appealing – though dangerous – food item for many animals,” writes The Independent. “Not only have marine animals from plankton to whales been documented eating plastic, often with fatal consequences, microplastics can end up inside us when we consume seafood. One study led by Professor Richard Thompson reported that plastic was found in a third of UK-caught fish.”
“Some estimates place the number of microplastics in the world's ocean at up to 51 trillion fragments in total,” reports the newspaper.
Farrelly explained that what most people don't know is that glitter is made of aluminum and a plastic called "PET," which “can break down to release chemicals that disrupt hormones in the bodies of animals and humans.”
“Such chemicals have been linked with the onset of cancers and neurological diseases,” The Independent reports.
Scientists worry that the glitter particles not just in arts and crafts supplies but also in bath products and cosmetics will wash into the ocean and threaten both marine and human life.
There are companies like Lush, a popular chain known for their colorful soaps and bath bombs, that have moved to replace glitter with biodegradable alternatives.
Dr. Sue Kinsey, senior pollution policy officer at the Marine Conservation Society, praised the move as a step in the right direction by a company that has "listened to advice and clearly understand the threat.”
Some British nurseries have already banned the products, not allowing children to play with or use glitter for arts and crafts projects, reports the BBC.
Managing director of Tops Day Nurseries, Cheryl Hadland, told the BBC, "You can see when the children are taking their bits of craft home and there's glitter on the cardboard, it blows off and into the air."
"There are 22,000 nurseries in the country, so if we're all getting through kilos and kilos of glitter, we're doing terrible damage," she said.
Microbeads like those found in toothpastes and body scrubs are a microplastic already being phased out of consumer products in the U.S. as part of the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015. They are described as "down the drain" products hazardous to the environment.
Scientists view glitter as a "no-brainer" for lawmakers to tackle next on the agenda.
For more, check out the CBS Local report below.
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Great series...
Great book....
Thank you very much.
:)
Being a weirdo is my particular forte’.
I excel at it.
:D
Drag Queens Revolt!!!!
The herpes of the craft world.
nice!
Glitter should have been banned decades ago. I have no problem supporting this.
“Pay the ransom, or we explode a glitter bomb in your house”
If I remember correctly, I kicked the Glitter habit when I was 12 years old.
I still sniff Elmer’s White Glue though. They gave us really big bottles of it when we were gluing all that Glitter to the construction paper and I was hooked.
Public Education made me what I am today.
Simple solution: Mica
“I mean, really, how much of it actually goes down a drain, besides body glitter?”
Enough to make it into 1/3 of all the fish caught off Britain.
All the shell fish on the Oregon Coast (that was where the study took place) have plastic micro-fibers in their flesh.
Really beautiful!!!
Seems to be a BACKHANDED ATTACK on the gay community, since they use most of this junk.
If they don’t like the gay lifestyle, they might as well state it OUTRIGHT.
So stupid on so many levels. Like banning hairspray. I really hate the call to ban or limit use of priducts based on junk science.
Faggies are in an uproar. Glitter is their favorite weapon when assaulting conservatives trying to speak.
Another solution is biodegradable glitter.
So I looked that up and they blame microfiber fleece being washed, for that, which makes far more sense than glitter.
Given what I see in my lint trap all the time, I say glitter is not guilty.
When FR’s DC Chapter volunteered at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, we were cautioned not to forward donated greeting cards that had glitter on them, because the glitter could fall into newly stitched-up wounds and cause pain, irritation or infection.
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