http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/plastic-microbeads-in-facial-scrubs-causing-damage-to-environment-20140405-365ph.html

Plastic microbeads in facial scrubs causing damage to environment

April 6, 2014
Neil McMahon

Vanity - and our vulnerability to the power of advertising - are
changing consumer habits from breakfast to bedtime, and contributing to
an almighty environmental mess. The culprit: microbeads.

These are minute bits of plastic that have been inserted into everyday
products from facial creams to toothpaste, proclaimed in advertising as
a healthy advance but which are turbo-charging an already dire problem -
the global pollution of oceans, lakes and rivers by cast-off plastic.

What makes microbeads especially threatening is that they enter the
environment - washed down our bathroom drains - already broken down into
all-but invisible microplastics, defined as 0.1 to 0.5 millimetres in size.

Tiny and buoyant, and not filtered by sewerage systems, they are swiftly
ingestible by marine life, making them more immediately dangerous than a
discarded drink bottle. They are likely to have entered the food chain -
so while you wouldn't eat your facial scrub from the jar, you might be
consuming it if you eat fish.

And for what benefit to ourselves - to our skin?