Did you ever think the tiny shiny pellets you see in you cosmetics or shower gels could in fact choke fish.

In parallel studies conducted across the world, researchers have confirmed the menace that the ‘microbeads’ are! These minute granules, though not harmful for human health, enter the waterways and persist in the food chain, thus, harming fish and disrupting marine life.

Microbeads are the minuscule plastic bits found in cosmetics and personal-care products. These coarse grains are added to cosmetics to make them shine and help make the skin look smoother. They can also be found in toothpastes, shower gels, face washes and scrubs and even in some lipsticks.

What is amiss about these microbeads is that, they are so tiny that once someone uses a personal-care product like a face wash or a shower gel, they end up in the drain of a washbasin or bathtub. Owing to their size, they are not even filtered out during the wastewater treatment process, consequently ending up in the rivers and seas, as it is. Thereafter, they attract algal growth and toxic chemicals, due to which they become heavy and settle at the seabed, from where they are ingested by small fish. These small fish are eaten by big fish and this is how these tiny beads persist in the aquatic food chain. Human are at an equal risk as they too consume seafood.

Therefore, a ban has already been put in place against the use, import or manufacture of these deadly beads. The Canadian Environmental Protection Act and Food and Drugs Act, both are bringing microbeads into their ambit, after researchers found enormous quantities of microbeads in the Great Lakes.

States including Illinois, New Jersey, Michigan, New York, Indiana in the US and Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden in Europe have already banned microbeads.