你还在用磨砂洗面奶吗？

The stage is set for a ban on soaps, toothpastes, and body washes that contain tiny plastic particles called microbeads. The US House of Representatives recently passed a bill that phases out the environmentally-harmful beads beginning 1 July 2017, and now heads to the Senate for approval. The problem with microbeads is simple: They don't dissolve, instead entering waterstreams by the billions.

含有被称作微胶珠的磨砂颗粒的洗面奶，牙膏和沐浴乳产品即将被全面禁止使用。美国众议院最近通过了一项法案，从2017年6月1日起将逐步淘汰这种对环境有伤害的颗粒物。接下来将等待美国参议院通过。这种磨砂颗粒的害处很简单：它们无法溶解，数十亿计的颗粒因此进入了水流之中。

California's State Assembly approved a measure to ban the beads, which are touted by big companies as skin exfoliators, this summer.

今年夏天，加州众议院通过禁止使用这种颗粒的法规。长期以来大公司的皮肤去角质产品一直在吹嘘这种颗粒。

In the state of New York alone, 19 tons (17 tonnes) of microbeads are washed down the drain each year, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society, where they collect harmful pollutants like DDT (Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane). In waterways, fish and other wildlife mistake the teensy scraps of plastic for food. From there, the beads are integrated into the food chain.

根据国际野生生物保护学会的统计，仅仅在纽约州，每年就有19吨的磨砂颗粒被冲入下水道。在那里这些颗粒会聚集有害污染物比如DDT(二氯二本三氯乙烷)。在水体中，鱼和其他野生生物会把这些很小的塑料废弃物当做食物吞食。从这一步开始，这些颗粒就进入了食物链之中。

"Microbeads are highly damaging to the natural environment and the wildlife that live there. Because natural alternatives already exist, a ban on their use in personal care products makes perfect sense," the Wildlife Conservation Society states in a press release.

“微胶珠对自然环境和野生生物具有高度破坏性。因为已经存在自然的替代品，在个人护理产品中禁止它们的使用是理所应当的，”野生生物保护学会在新闻发布会中说。

A 2013 study found as many as 1.7 million of the tiny plastic particles per square kilometre in Michigan's Lake Erie, one of the bodies of water in the Great Lakes Region where many of our debris end up.

一项2013年内的研究发现密歇根洲的伊利湖里，每平方公里含有多达170万个这样的塑料颗粒。伊利湖也是五大湖区域贮存人类废弃物的水体之一。

Because they're so small, microbeads don’t get filtered out by wastewater treatment plants. Instead, they get discharged directly into rivers, lakes, and the ocean.

因为它们非常小，污水处理厂无法过滤掉它们，因此它们被直接排放到河流，湖泊和海洋中。

There, fish, turtles, and other aquatic wildlife feed on the tiny bits of plastic, which to them are often indistinguishable from food. But rather than simply getting eaten and discharged by the animals, the microbeads become lodged in the animals' stomachs or intestines. When this happens, the animals often stop eating and die of starvation or suffer other health problems.

在那里，鱼类，海龟，和其他野生水中动物都会吃进去这些塑料颗粒，它们很难与食物相区分。这些颗粒不仅仅被动物吃掉并排出，它们还会存留在动物的胃和肠道中。一旦发生，动物就会停止进食，并死于饥饿或者其他健康问题。

"We have the evidence that the micro plastics do cause harm," Marcus Eriksen, the executive director of the 5 Gyres Institute, a research group who led the 2013 study, told Scientific American. "I am hoping we can translate that research into some positive action."

“我们有证据显示这些微型颗粒会造成伤害，”领导了2013年那次研究的五螺旋研究所执行理事Marcus Eriksen告诉《科学美国人》杂志。“我期望我们能把研究转化为积极的行动。”

Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, and Procter & Gamble have all made pledges to phase out the most common kind of microbead from products.

强生，联合利华和宝洁都已经保证将逐步淘汰产品中最常见的微胶珠。