Читать книгу Plastic and Microplastic in the Environment - Группа авторов - Страница 14

Plastic materials have been utilized in the cosmetic industry for decades since the 1960s. The particles of plastic used in personal care products can be large enough to see with the naked eye (50–1000 μm), fine particles (lower μm‐range), or very fine particles (< 2.5 μm) (Leslie 2014). MPs used in the industry may be spherical or irregular morphology as shown in Figure 1.1 (Godoy et al. 2019). MPs used as ingredients in cosmetic products include the |two main categories that are typically made from petroleum carbon sources: thermoplastics (e.g. polypropylene (), polyethylene (PE), polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon), polystyrene (PS), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA); and thermoset plastics (e.g. polyester, polyurethanes)) (Napper et al. 2015). According to Gouin et al. (2015), around 93% of the microbeads applied in cosmetics are PE, since their smoothness reduces redness and impact on the human skin compared to other polymers.

Figure 1.1 (a) Micrograph of a microbead found in Lantau Island, Hong Kong

Source: Cheung 2016, p. 02 / With permission from Elsevier. (b), (c) Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of microbeads utilized in cosmetic products

Source: Napper 2015, p. 05 / With permission from Elsevier; Godoy 2019, p.06 / With permission from Elsevier.