1) What
are personal care products and cosmetics?
Personal care products
are applied externally to the body for the following purposes.
·
Enhancing beauty
·
Cleaning the skin
·
Protecting the skin against the suns UV
radiation
·
Prevention the aging the skin
·
Cleaning hair
Some ingredients used in
these products are found as toxic to the health of humans as well as animals.
Coal tar, 1,4- dioxins, formaldehyde, lead, Toluene, mercury, and microplastics
are examples of the toxic compounds found in these products.
So, the use of such toxic substances in the
production of personal care products and cosmetics is banned, or allowable
amounts are prescribed. But, some of these products may contain elevated levels
of toxic chemicals due to the low cost of the ingredients or to give instant
results.
2) How
do personal care products and cosmetics contaminate the environment?
1. Disposal of plastic containers
Even though these
containers are produced with recyclable plastic materials, they are directly
thrown away into the environment as the manufacturers do not have procedures
for the recollection of the empty containers. In the environment, plastics
degrade into microplastics.
2. Use of sachet packets
Rather than purchasing
expensive, high volume bottles, single-use, sachet packets make affordable the
smallest quantity of some personal care products such as hair jells, shampoos,
and conditioners for the low-income communities. Sachet packets are stored in a
thin layer of polythene and aluminum foil. Due to their low cost, people tend
to buy sachet packets daily, and they are not properly disposed of in the
environment. As a result, a large number of sachet packets accumulate in the environment.
3. Use of labels printed
with toxic inks
Petroleum-based inks are
used for printing labels in the manufacturing industry. These inks contain
trash amounts of heavy metals like Pb and Hg.
4. Removal of personal
care products and cosmetics during cleaning
A significant fraction of
applied personal care products and cosmetics are washed away from the body
during bathing, washing, and swimming to sewage treatment plants.
5. Residual in the
containers and package after the usage
After usage, containers
the personal care products and cosmetics are disposed of without cleaning the
residuals. Once they enter into aquatic bodies or contact with soil, their
remaining may release and contaminate the environment.
3) Environmental
effects:
Frequent floods:
Irregular disposal of Plastic containers and Sachets packets cause clogging in
the drains. It results in flash floods during rains with light rainfall
intensity.
Heavy metals: Coloring
agents that are added for producing colors in cosmetics contain heavy metals,
although they are artificially synthesized or produced from natural resources
like clay. Because clay is contaminated during the mining process by heavy
metals. These heavy metals are released into the environment during the washing
of the body. Even only trash amount of heavy metals can be toxic to soil
organisms as well as aquatic organisms.
Effects
of Microplastics: When
the plastic containers of personal care products or cosmetics are degraded,
they are not fully degraded into carbon dioxide and water. They partially break
down into tiny pieces called microplastics. And also, artificially produced
microplastic bead is added as ingredients in skincare products. Toxic
substances like dioxin, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and Polychlorinated
biphenyl are added as their ingredients into Microplastics or absorbed by the
microplastics in the environment.
As the particle size of
microplastics is too small, current filtration methods in the wastewater
treatment plants are also not sufficient to remove the Microplastics and
released them with treated water into the environment. When these microplastics
are ended up in the marine environment, they tend to spread throughout the food
webs and bioaccumulate in marine organisms. Marine organisms mistakenly take
microplastic as their food sources. As microplastics are not digested in their
body, they interrupt the digestion and block the digestive tract. And
eventually, the intake of a large number of nonnutritious microplastics results
in malnutrition in marine organisms.
Coral bleaching:
Tourists tend to apply sunscreen on their skin to protect against the sun’s
harmful radiation. Ultraviolet filers like oxybenzone dissolve out from
sunscreen tend to interrupt the reproduction and growth of corals.
4) Human
health effects
Endocrine disruptors:
Some chemicals in personal care products and cosmetics behave like hormones of
humans. They interfere with the functioning of the endocrine system and cause
problems in reproduction, growth and development, and immunity. Dioxin and
Diethanolamine, which are commonly found in foaming products like shampoo, body
washes, and shaving creams, act as endocrine disruptors.
Carcinogens:
Chemical compounds like dioxins, Formaldehydes, talc, and Toluene are found as
carcinogens to human health. Toluene is added as a solvent in nail polishes and
hair dyes. Formaldehydes are added as an ingredient, or it results from the
degradation of other compounds in the products. It is found as a preservative
or disinfectant agent in deodorants, shampoo, shaving creams, bathing soap, and
nail polish. These chemicals lead to the development of uncontrolled growth of
cell masses called tumors and eventually cause cancers in the body.
Heavy metals:
Heavy metal are added to cosmetics as a color additive agent. Even though they
are added as prescribed amounts in the production, chronic exposure for trash
amounts of heavy metals may cause an increase in the development of cancers and
other health issues associated with heavy metals.
Microplastics:
People tend to show serious health conditions after they consume contaminated
seafood and salts by microplastics.
5) Solutions:
Sachet packets:
As they are contaminated with the stored products, sachet packets are not
possible to send for recycling. So, the only viable solution for the sachet
packets is throwing away after usage. As a result, the volume of municipal
waste has increased throughout the world.
As they take hundreds of years to degrade and residuals resulting from
the degradation can contaminate soil, groundwater, and surface water sources,
they have to be disposed of in a sanitary landfill.
Refiling:
Refilling facilities for personal care products like shampoo can be provided.
So, people tend to shift from purchasing products, again and again, to refill
with old containers.
Products with less toxic
compounds: As people, more concern about the ingredients of the
products they daily apply onto their bodies and their side effects,
manufacturing companies of personal care products and cosmetics tend to
products with less toxic substances. Costumers have to make wise decisions when
then purchase products for hygiene and enhancing beauty.
Production of a small
quantity of personal care products in refillable containers:
Rather than selling small quantities of products as sachet packets, they can be
provided with small containers at a reasonable price.
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