A bill that would ban the production and sale of products that contain microbeads is headed to the governor‘s desk after final approval from House lawmakers.
The language defines a "microbead" as a spherical object that is five millimeters or less in diameter and non-biodegradable.
State representative Pat Bauer (D-South Bend) authored the measure.
He says they can be found in numerous everyday products.
"Exfoliants. They're in toothpaste. They're in facial washes and things like that," says Bauer. "And when they are disposed they go into the Great Lakes and fish swallow them. Then when you eat the fish you get them in your body, and they can have disease bearing components in them."
Bauer says microbeads can cause problems for local water supplies, too.
He says they are difficult to filter out and are rarely eliminated in a city’s typical water filtration process.
If signed into law, Indiana would join numerous other states that have taken steps to eliminate microbeads.
