Cathy CUR, Intro/Things I do not think you know, but should

Hello Everyone!!!

My name is Cathy for those of you who do not know, and I am a counting undergraduate researcher at Daytona State College. My current research project is on plastic in the Indian River Lagoon(IRL). When I originally took Dr. Woodall's oceanography class way back when my research was on copper levels in the Tomoka River. I have always been fascinated by the water ways of Florida specifically South Florida, ever scene I was a small child. I am originally from Boynton Beach, which is about three hours south of Daytona Beach. My husband and I relocated to the Daytona Beach area about a year and half ago. We moved this way because my husband, Fawaaz, is a Ph.D student at Embry Riddle, in Human Factors.

Plastic Microbeads

Plastic Pollution is a growing problem not just in our area, but across the globe. We live in a country that tends to live a fast pace, single use lifestyle. Meaning we tend not reuse items (ex: paper plates, straws, plastic bags) because that would require us to spend more time washing items and/or recycling. Another area of plastic pollution is mircobeads. Microbeads can be found in most of the personal care products that are on the market. The beads are used as a scrubbing agent in these items. Now before plastic was wildly used, soap companies used to use sand, salt, or rocks as the scrubbing agent. They stopped this practice because plastic is so cheap and easy to come by. Some companies have stopped the use of the plastic beads and gone back to their old ways. Which is a wounderful thing!!!

Some products that contain Microbeads

Why do we care about these microscopic beads we care because they are effecting our health. These plastic microbeads are on average less than 1mm in size. When we wash our face or brush our teeth with these product, we are rising the beads down our drains, which leads them into the swearer system and untimely out to the ocean. Our water treatment facility do not filter out these beads because of their size. Once the beads enter the ocean they deposit on the ocean floor, and bottom feeding fish eat the beads thinking they are food. Then the food chain comes into play and a bigger fish eats the little fish and we  as the top of this food chain eat the fish. If you do not know plastic is manufactured using chemicals that for the most part are untested or harmful to humans.

If you would like more information about mircobeads this website has been a great help in my understanding of the beads and the growing problem.