Microfibers From Cloth Pose New Threat to Great Lakes

February 6, 2015- Scientists have been warning for several years that the Great Lakes are filled with tiny plastic particles from products like body washes and toothpaste, but now they are raising new concerns about another form of debris: synthetic fibers from garments, cleaning cloths, and other consumer products.

These “microfibers” are ultra-fine filaments made of petroleum-based materials like polyester and nylon and woven into fabrics. When we wash clothes, these fibers break off and go down the drain, where they get treated as wastewater and end up in lakes and streams, says Sherri Mason, a chemist at State University of New York at Fredonia.

The fibers are so tiny that people don’t realize their fleece pullover can shed thousands of them each time it’s washed. When Mason's team and a group from the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant program took samples from southern Lake Michigan in 2013, about 12 percent of the debris consisted of these microfibers. They can get caught in the digestive tracts of wildlife and also wind up in our drinking water.

Companies have been replacing tiny micro-beads found in face washes with natural substances like ground-up fruit pits. But because microfibers are used so widely, there's no obvious solution, Mason said. Persuading people to stop wearing synthetic clothes is a harder sell than the idea of switching facial scrubs.

Read the full ChicagoTribune.com editorial post here.

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