Think for a second about what you have eaten today.
What if I told you that pieces of plastic might be in your list?
Microplastics contained in cosmetic products are designed to get washed down the drain, but their tiny sizes do not allow them to be filtered out by water treatment plants; moreover, they are not biodegradable, and will travel through the rivers and into the sea. When microplastics get into the sea, they attract waterborne toxins and bacteria and these polluted particles can be eaten by sea animals and contaminating marine food chain.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention define the greatest threats of food- and water-borne illnesses to be from among the following bacteria:
- Salmonella species
- Shigella dysenteriae
- Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli)
- Vibrio cholerae
- Cryptosporidium parvum (C. parvum)
Most infections with food- and water-borne bacteria cause diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, fever and stomach cramps.
Guess who is at the end of this chain?