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Ban Sought on Microbeads in Beauty Items

Lawmakers in Albany could make New York the first state to outlaw the tiny plastic beads used in personal care products like facial scrubs and toothpastes.

Legislation that is scheduled to be introduced on Tuesday by Assemblyman Robert K. Sweeney of Suffolk County on behalf of Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman would prohibit the sale of cosmetic and beauty products that contain the beads, which are added to aid exfoliation and abrasion.

The beads appear in the tens of millions in the Great Lakes, according to scientists’ estimates, with high concentrations along the New York shores of Lake Erie. They become coated with toxins like PCBs and can be eaten by fish and other marine life. Scientists suggest that those toxins could be working their way back up the food chain to humans.

The beads and other bits of tiny “microplastic” debris slip through wastewater treatment plants and have also been found in the Los Angeles River and in the Pacific Ocean. Antipollution activists argue that limiting the use of cosmetics, which can have hundreds of thousands of beads in a bottle, can help limit the environmental risk.

In a statement, Mr. Schneiderman called the proposal “common-sense legislation that will stop the flow of plastic from ill-designed beauty products into our vital waters, preserving our natural heritage for future generations.”

Mr. Sweeney, who is chairman of the Assembly’s environmental conservation committee, said, “When people learn more about this issue, they will be unwilling to sacrifice water quality just to continue to use products with plastic microbeads.”

The New York lawmakers worked with 5 Gyres, a group that fights plastic pollution in oceans, lakes and rivers. Stiv J. Wilson, the group’s policy director, said that his organization had developed model legislation and was sharing it with other states. “We’re not looking at a one-state strategy,” he said. “This is the alpha, not the omega.”

The 5 Gyres group worked with other organizations to develop a free app, Beat the Microbead, that lets iPhone users scan product bar codes to see whether microspheres are among the ingredients.

Some manufacturers, including Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson, have agreed to phase out the use of plastic beads. Others, such as Burt’s Bees, already use nonplastic alternatives like powdered pecan shells. Mr. Wilson said that his group had found thousands of products around the world that included the beads, and that dealing with individual manufacturers was “akin to playing Whac-a-Mole.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 23 of the New York edition with the headline: Ban Sought on Microbeads in Beauty Items. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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