While California’s legislators and city leaders debate and vote on the use of plastic bags, Monique Liguori is addressing another type of plastic pollution that has found its way into household water systems.
The state Assembly has turned down a Senate bill that would make California the first state to ban single-use plastic bags, although 100 cities and counties — including several in the Bay Area — already have banned the bags in hope of reducing the number of them introduced into the environment.
Several members of the Assembly who opposed the legislation cited its requirement for a 10-cent charge for paper bags.
But the plastic that Liguori is addressing is in another form — microbeads.
Liguori is director of the Suisun Marsh Natural History Association and its wildlife center at 1171 Kellogg St., Suisun.
The center trains volunteers to care for sick, orphaned and injured birds and animals. Volunteers also are trained to foster infant creatures separated from their mothers.
Animals and birds that no longer can survive in the wild become members of the center’s educational exhibits.
But Liguori’s interest goes beyond the birds and animals of Suisun Marsh. And that led her to research plastic pollution.
“One thing many people are still not aware of is the addition of plastic microbeads to cosmetics, facial scrubs and even toothpaste,” she said.
She said the tiny plastic beads have replaced traditional, biodegradable abrasives, such as salt and sugar crystals, coco bean husks and the ground shells of walnuts and almonds.
The plastic beads are so small that when they enter household water systems, they aren’t removed by filters in wastewater treatment plants.
Ultimately, they end up in canals, rivers and the ocean.
“There they join the frightening and possibly permanent collection of plastics clogging the oceans, Great Lakes and other bodies of water, killing marine birds and animals,” she said.
Those birds and animals feed on the tiny pieces of plastic, but ingesting those beads can harm or kill.
“In an overview published for the Convention on Biological Diversity, it was shown in one study that around 35 percent of 670 fish examined had microplastics in their stomachs, with the highest number of fragments found in one fish — 83,” she said.
“Another problem with the plastics used in the microbeads is that they attract and absorb persistent organic pollutants, like DDT and PCBs from the water,” Liguori said.
Rachel Carson’s best-selling book, “Silent Spring,” spoke out against DDT, and public reaction helped encourage the environmental movement.
In an attempt to bring back such endangered birds as the bald eagle and peregrine falcon, the United States banned the insecticide DDT for agricultural use in 1972, and in 2001 the Stockholm Convention banned its use worldwide. The chemical still is used for disease vector control, particularly in areas where malaria persists.
For years, PCBs were used in coolant fluids, carbon paper and heat transfer liquids. But because of its toxicity, it was banned in 1979 in the United States and worldwide by the 2001 Stockholm Convention. The chemicals are considered to be carcinogens.
Both DDT and PCBs are considered to be persistent organic pollutants, attracted by the tiny plastic beads.
“In time, scientists believe it is possible that these compounds could accumulate in the food chain, transferring from species to species with ultimate consequences for humans,” Liguori said.
She said the California Assembly passed a law May 23 to remove microbeads from personal-care products. Illinois and New York have done the same thing, she noted.
“The Microplastic Nuisance Prevention law bans the sale and manufacturing of personal care products with microbeads,” Liguori said. “With this bill, California set a precedent to hold companies liable for creating products that pollute water and harm life.”
She urged shoppers to check products for microbead plastic content and refuse to buy them.
“If you write or email manufacturers that you will not buy these products, that will help,” she said.
Many companies are starting to phase out microbeads, she said, crediting public pressure for the change.
Among those who are moving in that direction are Tesco, Proctor and Gamble, Estee Lauder, Johnson and Johnson, Unilever and L’Oreal.
But few are moving fast enough, Liguori said.
“Unfortunately, the process of removing them will take several years, so pressure needs to continue,” she said.