DailyDirt: It's The Little Things That Matter...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Adding a little bit of something can make a huge difference. For example, some carbon and a few other trace metals added to iron can make a steel stronger and stainless. Nanotechnology promises to improve a bunch of things with very small changes to the surfaces of common materials. But these small changes could also cause some big problems. Here are just a few links on some small ingredients that might not be so great for the environment.

• In case you hadn't heard, Minnesota has passed a law against antibacterial soaps containing triclosan. The law won't go into effect until 2017, so the big soap makers have some time to try to fight the ban or figure out how to sell regular old soap now that they've flooded the market with soaps that tell consumers that old soap formulas are more germy. [url]
• Illinois has banned microbeads in soaps and body washes. This law also won't go into effect for a few years, but the tiny plastic beads are already turning up in the Great Lakes and in various waterways. [url]
• If you don't like the idea of nano-sized particles of titanium dioxide in food, you should look at your dairy products a bit more closely. The FDA is looking into regulating nano-sized particles, but some commercial products may already contain them. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: antibacterial, environment, fda, microbeads, nanotechnology, soap, titanium dioxide, triclosan