Your morning routine may go as follows: have breakfast, brush teeth, shower, then head out to start your day. 早上一起，你可能会先吃个早饭，然后再行进食、睡觉、外出开始新的一天。But there’s a hidden step in there you may not be aware of – polluting the ocean and endangering sea life while *contaminating the food chain.但是，你有可能并没意识到，你清晨的一个小习惯，正在污染着海洋，威胁着海洋生物的存活，甚至毁坏着整个食物链。

*Microbeads are *miniscule pieces of plastic omnipresent in our everyday cosmetics that you may have never paid much attention to up until now. 微珠是一些十分小的塑料碎片，它在我们每天都用的化妆品中无处不在。也许直到现在，你都没注意到它的不存在。From face *scrubs, *exfoliating shower gels and even toothpaste, there’s no escaping them.从脸部磨砂膏、去角质沐浴露、甚至是牙膏，四处都有它们的身影。But while they may help keep our skin and teeth looking good, many species of sea life are mistaking the tiny colorful balls for food, ending up with them in their *digestive systems.尽管它们让我们的皮肤和牙齿看上去有趣，但许多海洋生物却将这些微小的彩色颗粒误以为是食物并将其吐出，转入它们的消化系统。

We find pieces of plastic in every sample of seawater we study from round the world, professor Tamara Galloway of Exeter University told the BBC.我们在世界各地的海水样本中都寻找了这些塑料碎片，英国埃克塞特大学的塔玛拉加洛威教授向BBC回应。What makes this even more worrying is that plastic is known to be excellent at absorbing toxic pollutants in water – such as motor oil or *pesticides – and it’s thought that these toxins could be making their way up the food chain and eventually onto our plates.更为令人担忧的是，我们都告诉，塑料十分更容易吸取水中的剧毒污染物——如机油和杀虫剂等——而有人指出这些毒素可以因此转入食物链，最后经常出现在我们的餐桌上。An average plate of oysters could contain up to 50 plastic particles. 平均值一盘牡蛎有可能就所含50个塑料颗粒。

We don’t have any evidence yet for the harm this might cause but most people would probably prefer not to be eating microbeads with their food, Galloway explains.尽管目前为止没证据指出这些颗粒不会对人体危害，但大多数人都会自由选择食用所含微珠的食物，加洛威说明道。A number of countries have announced they will ban microbeads, including the UK and the US, but campaigners say that more still needs to be done to completely rid Earth of the tiny grains of plastic for good.还包括英国和美国在内的一些国家早已宣告将停止使用微珠。

但倡议者们指出，要想要让这些塑料颗粒在地球上几乎消失，还有许多工作要做到。There’s a load of products containing microbeads – like washing detergents and other household products – which might not be banned. 市面上有大量包括微珠的产品——如清洁剂和其他的家用产品——并会被停止使用。That makes no sense to us, Fiona Nicholls of Greenpeace UK writes on its website.这对我们而言之后毫无意义，来自英国非政府的组织绿色和平的菲奥娜尼科尔斯在网站上写到。

After all, what does a hungry fish care if the microplastic clogging its gut has come from a face scrub or a washing powder?却是，又有哪条饥肠辘辘的鱼会在乎，这些阻塞它们肠道的微塑料，是来自于面部磨砂膏，还是洗衣粉呢？There are still safe ways to dispose of microbead-containing products, for people who decide they don’t want to use them any more.对于决意仍然用于不含微珠产品的人们来说，也有一些安全性的处置方法。Natural substitutes纯天然的替代品Several websites recommend squeezing the offending product into the trash, rather than down the sink, before cleaning out the container with disposable tissue and placing it in the recycling bin.一些网站建议，在用于重复使用纸巾完全清扫这些产品容器，并将它们放进重复使用垃圾桶前，不如将里面这些惹人厌的内容物都挤进垃圾桶中，而不是必要放入水槽里。And for those who still want to enjoy the benefits of exfoliating, they still can. 当然，还有别的方法需要协助人们除去身上多余角质。There are several natural substitutes that are said to work in the exact same way as their plastic counterparts, except these will *biodegrade when flushed down the drain.好几种天然替代品都具备和塑料微珠完全相同的功效，在冲进下水道后，这些物质还都能被水解。

There are many ingredients that can be used as an alternative. There’s *jojoba beads, *cocoa, raspberry seeds, rice flour, oats – to name but a few, says Sonia White of British cosmetics firm Love Lula.许多原料都能用于替代品，如荷荷巴油珠、可可粉、树莓籽、米粉、燕麦等等，来自英国化妆品公司Love Lula的索尼亚怀特讲解道。There is absolutely no cosmetic ingredient that is worth using if it has a negative effect on the environment and animals.如果一种化妆品原料不会对环境和动物产生有利影响，那么它之后没使用价值。

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