Visions of Green and Blue: What's in your Exfoliant?

Using an exfoliant can leave your skin feeling great; however, have you ever taken a moment to think about what those tiny 'bits' in exfoliant actually are?

Unless the product is marked 100% natural (even then you have to read the lable), those tiny 'bits' are most likely pieces of plastic. Yes, you are washing your face and body with little balls of plastic that will rinse down your drain, into the sewer system, then into a river, and ultimately into the ocean. Once these pieces of your exfoliant reach the ocean they become bitesize meals for small sea creatures which mistake them for plankton. These plastic particle eventually build up and get lodged in the animals intestines, which most often results in terminal constipation.

The main problem with plastic is that it has not been around long enough to know what the long term issues surrounding it are. As the plastic works itself up the food chain do the chemical properties change or increase enough so, that we are ultimately poisoning ourselves? There have been studies surrounding PCB's (which were banned in the 1970's but continues to leak out of pre-1970's platics) sticking to floating plastic in the ocean. When these platic particles are ingested the poison levels become much higher then when they were floating in the water.

So, if you are an avid user of exfoliants, before you purchase your next bottle read the label. If it contains any of the following ingredients: micro-fine polyethylene granules, polyethylene micro-spheres, polyethylene beads, or polyethylene, return it to its place on the shelf and look for a bottle that is marked 100% natural exfoliant. The natural exfoliants contain granules of walnut shell, jojoba seeds, grape seeds, apricot hulls, sea salt, or coarse sugar. The natural options may cost a little more, but they are easier on the environment and most likely on your face as well. Do you really want to be scrubbing your face with plastic?

Books of '09

• Silent Spring. By, Rachel Carson
• Sea Sick, the Global Ocean in Crisis. By, Alanna Mitchell
• The world without us. By, Alan Weisman
• Bottomfeeder. How to eat ethically in a world of vanashing seafood. By, Taras Grescoe
• Life in 2030: Exploring a Sustainable Future for Canada. By, John B. Robinson
• The Whale Warriors. The battle at the bottom of the world to save the planet's largest mammals. By, Peter Heller
• In a perfect ocean. The state of fisheries and ecosystems in the north atlantic ocean. By, Daniel Pauly and Jay Maclean
• The end of the line. How overfishing is changing the world and what we eat. By, Charles Clover