Centre lets microbeads off the hook

To NGT query, three Ministries either pass the buck or say no studies have been done on them.

An exfoliating scrub with microbeads. File Photo: NYT

Microbeads, small pellets of plastic, extensively used in personal care products such as shampoo, baby lotion and face cream and considered toxic to marine life, are being banned internationally, but key arms of the Indian government have side-stepped the issue either passing the buck or saying that no studies have been conducted to ascertain the harm posed to the environment or its potential toxicity.

On a petition filed by Ashwani Kumar, an environment lawyer, requesting a ban on microbeads, also called microplastics, this March, a National Green Tribunal Bench asked the Ministries of Health, Environment and Water Resources file their response. The crux of Mr. Kumar’s petition is that these plastics are too small to be caught by sewage treatment and water filtration techniques and they pass unchecked into rivers and seas and contaminated them. They take centuries to degrade and worse, are sometimes eaten by fish and other aquatic animals and could even make their way into human diets.

According to the responses viewed by

The Hindu , the Water Resources Ministry has washed its hands of the affair. “…The issues raised by the applicant do not come under the purview of the answering respondent [Ministry of Water Resources],” says a note signed by an officer, Sundeep Singh.

One of the promises of the Water Resources Ministry, as part of the National Clean Ganga Mission, is to revive aquatic life in the polluted Ganga.

The Environment Ministry’s response said the Central Drug Standards Control Organisation — a Health Ministry body — was responsible for ensuring what chemicals were permissible in the manufacture of cosmetics. On whether there were tests on microbeads as effluent, it submitted that “…any study on this aspect has not been conducted by this Ministry...” said Dinesh Runiwal, a scientist in the Ministry, in the affidavit submitted by the Ministry.

The Health Ministry, in its response, averred that the Bureau of Indian Standards maintained a list of chemicals that were disallowed in the manufacture of cosmetics; ‘microbeads’ did not fall in that list.

Further deliberations are slotted for the first week of August, Sumeer Sodhi of the law firm VSA Legal told The Hindu . “We’ve responded that some plastics — polyethylene and polysterene — are the on the BIS list and they are still used in cosmetics. Clearly, the Health Ministry hasn’t applied [its] mind to the petition.” he said.

Banned in U.S.

The United States has promulgated a ban, which will come into effect next July, on cosmetic products containing microbeads.

Over 299 million tonnes of plastic was produced worldwide in 2013 some of which made its way to oceans, costing approximately $13 billion per year in environmental damage to marine ecosystems, says a June 2015 report by the United Nations Environmental Programme that investigated the possible harm by microbeads/microplastics.