Personal care products (PCP) like face washes and shower gels in India contain a significant amount of harmful microplastics, new research has revealed.

According to a study published in the Emerging Contaminants journal and led by Riya K. Alex, a third-year Ph.D Scholar at the Cochin University of Science and Technology, polyethylene (or polythene, PE) is the dominant polymer noted in microplastic emissions from PCPs.

What are microplastics?

Microplastics are defined as particles of plastic that are under 5mm in range — in terms of microbeads, under 5mm in diameter and mainly in the range of 1-1,000 micrometres.

Findings of the new research

The research analysed 45 samples of PCP across four categories — face wash, face scrub, shower gel, and body scrub available in Indian market and manufactured in the year 2022. The study especially used products marketed as “eco-friendly”, “natural”, and “organic” to scrutinise the legitimacy of these claims. Around 23.33% of products contained cellulose microbeads, and their biodegradability is unclear. Most of these microbeads were coloured white, followed by blue, pink, yellow, red, and green. According to the researchers, the white colour of microbeads could be intended to hide them from easy identification.

In PCPs, microbeads are widely used for exfoliation, as well as delivery of active ingredients and improved aesthetics, among other uses.

Microbeads in PCP are made of materials like polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyester, with polyethylene being the most dominant polymer identified in more than half the microbeads studied.

On average, 1.34% of the total product of each analysed sample was microbeads. This ranged from 0.04% at the lowest to 5.04% at the highest. In 30 grams of each kind of product, the average quantities of microbeads were noted to be 0.26g, 0.90g,1.24g and 1.74g for face washes, face scrubs, body scrubs, and shower gels respectively. The highest quantities obtained were 2.30g, 1.73g, 1.75g and 4.87g, respectively, whereas the lowest quantities extracted were 0.01g, 0.13g, 0.55g and 0.13g, respectively.

The average sizes of microbeads in samples under study were 640.74 μm, 452.45 μm, 556.66 μm and 606.30 μm for face washes, face scrubs, body scrubs, and shower gels respectively. Shower gels contained the largest microbeads, followed by body scrubs, face scrubs, and face washes.

The study also shows that most microbeads were not spherical but instead irregularly shaped. This is worse for the environment, as irregular shapes provide more surface area for adsorption of other environmental pollutants, and sharper edges can potentially cause cuts and injuries to organisms who ingest them.

The research also found polycaprolactone, a type of bioplastic, in two of the tested samples. Although polycaprolactone is gaining attention as an efficient carrier for drugs, and for its anti-ageing and antibacterial constituents, it has been known to cause embryonic developmental delays and other malformations in aquatic biota.

Findings of the report also indicate greenwashing in the Indian PCP market, especially with labels like “organic”, “natural”, and” eco-friendly.” Brands rely on consumers to not scan the ingredient lists in detail, and the blends of natural and plastic in the same product poses challenges in recognising the presence of plastic.

Why are microbeads bad?

Like most other plastic pollution, microbeads are terrible for the environment. They accumulate in food chains, reach wastewater treatment facilities and eventually end up in oceans causing aquatic pollution.

Many countries, like the U.S., U.K., Canada, France, and New Zealand have banned the production and sale of products with microbeads, but it remains an ambiguous issue in developing countries like India. In 2023, India rose to the fourth position in terms of revenue in global beauty and personal care markets, behind the U.S., China, and Japan.

The 2030 microbead emission forecast for India is “alarmingly high,” researchers say. The trend can go up as well due to an evolving retail landscape, cosmetic trials, and enhanced purchasing power in the coming years.

Are microplastics everywhere?

Yes, microplastics are almost everywhere. A recent study by Toxics Link, a non-government organisation working in the field of environmental research and advocacy, found microplastics ranging from 6.71 to 89.15 pieces per kg of dry weight, and between 0.1 mm to 5 mm in size in several varieties of salt and sugar.

Microplastics have also been found in the human brain, blood, lungs, colon, placenta, testicles, and stool.

The study advocates for better policies to control microplastic pollution in India, and suggests coffee, apricots, walnut, kiwi seeds, and soluble cellulose beads, etc. as some natural and sustainable alternatives to microbeads in PCPs.

Marine scientist Anna Sanchez Vidal shows microplastics collected from the sea with a microscope at Barcelona’s University, during a research project “Surfing for Science” to assess contamination by microplastics on the coastline, in Barcelona, Spain, July 5, 2022. (Image for Representation)
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Researchers in Japan have confirmed microplastics are present in clouds, where they are likely affecting the climate in ways that aren’t yet fully understood.

In a study published in Environmental Chemistry Letters, scientists climbed Mount Fuji and Mount Oyama in order to collect water from the mists that shroud their peaks, then applied advanced imaging techniques to the samples to determine their physical and chemical properties.

The team identified nine different types of polymers and one type of rubber in the airborne microplastics — ranging in size from 7.1 to 94.6 micrometers.

Each liter of cloud water contained between 6.7 to 13.9 pieces of the plastics.

What’s more, “hydrophilic” or water-loving polymers were abundant, suggesting the particles play a significant role in rapid cloud formation and thus climate systems.

Also Read | Scientists find microplastics in blood for first time

“If the issue of ‘plastic air pollution’ is not addressed proactively, climate change and ecological risks may become a reality, causing irreversible and serious environmental damage in the future,” lead author Hiroshi Okochi of Waseda University warned in a statement Wednesday.

When microplastics reach the upper atmosphere and are exposed to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight, they degrade, contributing to greenhouse gasses, added Okochi.

Microplastics — defined as plastic particles under 5 millimeters — come from industrial effluent, textiles, synthetic car tires, personal care products and much more.

These tiny fragments have been discovered inside fish in the deepest recesses of the ocean peppering Arctic sea ice and blanketing the snows on the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain.

But the mechanisms of their transport have remained unclear, with research on airborne microplastic transport in particular limited.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on airborne microplastics in cloud water,” the authors wrote in their paper.

Emerging evidence has linked microplastics to a range of impacts on heart and lung health, as well as cancers, in addition to widespread environmental harm.

Could plants be the answer to the looming threat of microplastic pollution? Scientists at the University of British Columbia’s BioProducts Institute found that if you add tannins — natural plant compounds that make your mouth pucker if you bite into an unripe fruit — to a layer of wood dust, you can create a filter that traps virtually all microplastic particles present in water. The experiment remains a lab set-up at this stage. As per a release, the team analysed microparticles released from popular tea bags made of polypropylene. They found that their method trapped from 95.2% to as much as 99.9% of plastic particles in a column of water, depending on the plastic type. When tested in mouse models, the process was proved to prevent the accumulation of microplastics in the organs. Microplastics in a solution come in different sizes, shapes and electrical charges. By taking advantage of the different molecular interactions around tannic acids, the researchers were able to remove virtually all of these different microplastic types.