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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
60September/October 2015
ENVIRONMENT Plastics
T
HERE are some products, nota-
bly tobacco, that are only
tolerated because they have
been around for a very long
time. These days, no one in
their right mind would expect deliber-
ately to bring such a toxic product to the
market in western countries and to be
allowed to promote and sell it to the
public.
Or so you would think. Back in the late
s, the product development team in
a cosmetics company came up with a
brilliantly simple – and cheap – solution
for how to add texture to personal
hygiene products, such as exfoliants.
Until then, the industry used natural
materials, including dried coconut,
crushed walnut shells and finely ground
walnut shells to add an abrasive touch to
cosmetics.
These are, however, relatively expen-
sive, and present manufacturing
challenges. The industry’s ingenious
solution was quietly to replace these nat-
ural ingredients with tiny round balls of
polyethylene. Inexpensive and easy to
handle, thousands of billions of these
tiny balls have since been embedded in
hundreds of personal care products,
including some brands of toothpaste.
These microbeads are typically less
than mm in width, and, once used, they
quickly find their way into water sys-
tems, both inland and offshore. Their
tiny size means they slip through the
filters of almost all water-treatment facil-
ities. In the US, an astonishing ,
cubic metres of microbeads end up in the
rivers, lakes and seas every year.
Microbeads may be tiny, but they pack
a fearsome ecological punch. Given their
large surface area relative to their size,
potent organic pollutants like PCBs and
DDT adhere to microbeads, forming
super-concentrated mini toxin balls.
These travel quickly up the food chain, as
plankton ingest individual dots and are
then ingested in huge quantities by other
creatures across the food web.
And, lest we forget, humans sit at the
apex of the world’s aquatic food chains.
While other creatures have little choice,
by failing to regulate these dangerous
plastics, we as a species are actually
choosing to poison ourselves.
At a stretch, you might argue that the
industries responsible for introducing
this potent new aquatic pollutant could
have initially argued that nobody really
thought about what happened to these
products once they were washed down
the drain.
However, years of campaigning by
environmental NGOs, scientists and con-
cerned public officials have proved that
the manufacturers couldn’t care less just
how much damage their products cause.
Since they don’t have to contribute a cent
towards cleaning up the mess, microbead
pollution is just another off-balance sheet
‘externality’ the shareholders of corpora-
tions like Johnson & Johnson, Unilever
and Procter & Gamble are happy to make
someone else’s problem.
In mid-, New York State became
the first place in the world to outright to
ban products laced with microbeads (a
single tube of a well known facial
cleanser was found to contain over
, individual plastic beads). This
followed entirely unsuccessful efforts to
persuade cosmetics companies to volun-
tarily withdraw these toxic but profitable
products.
The decision of the New York State
Assembly to go for a total ban followed
findings by scientists that America’s
Great Lakes were becoming cesspools of
floating plastic beads. Water samples
drawn from Lake Ontario found
, microbeads per square kilome-
tre of the lake. When dissected, the
innards of fish caught in the Great Lakes
were found to be “festooned with
microbeads”.
The scientist who led the research, Dr
Sherri Mason, was asked by a reporter
what she thought would be an ‘accepta-
ble’ level of plastic in the Great Lakes.
Her reply: “There shouldn’t be any plastic
in our water, period”. Within New York
State, more than two thirds of its
waste-water treatment plants are unable
to filter out fine plastic particles.
At EU level, progress on phasing out
microbeads remains painfully slow,
thanks to well organised foot-dragging
by many of the main culprits. A spokes-
person for Irish Water described
microbeads as “an emerging contami-
nant issue”.
Irish Water plans to initiate a monitor-
ing programme to determine the scope
and scale of the problem here, and to
assess to what extent, if any, Irish water-
treatment plants are capable of filtering
out these tiny beads.
In a sane world, no corporation could
introduce such a novel element, unan-
nounced, into its products without them
first being rigorously independently
reviewed and assessed, both for toxicity
and for their potential to disrupt food
webs. In the real world, polluters profit
and the rest of us pick up the tab. •
John Gibbons is an environmental writer and
commentator and tweets @think_or_swim
PCBs and DDT adhere to microbeads, forming super-concentrated toxin balls which travel up
the food chain. By John Gibbons
A beady eye on plastic toxin balls
Irish Water
describes
microbeads as
“an emerging
contaminant
issue”
“
beads: bad
September/October 2015 61
ENVIRONMENT Obituary
I
RISH-Army soldier, fisherman,
truck driver, horseman, horticultur-
alist but above all campaigner,
Dominic Dunne was many men during
his tragically curtailed but eventful life.
He has died after a very short illness. It
was typical of Domo’s mischief: his
friends thought he was but in fact he
was born in . He appeared youth-
ful, such was his zest for life - not just
for his own, but for that of the planet
and its environment. Socially, ecologi-
cally, culturally, Domo’s enthusiasm for
engagement with the world around him
was on the one hand a mission of fun but
on the other a stealthy manifesto that
the world around him could be a better
place. He wanted the world to be more
equal, more just and more sustainable
but this most good-natured of men also
wanted it to be joyful.
A little man, with a big heart, and
great brain, he was an activist up and
down. ‘Raise Awareness’ was one of
Domo’s favourite battle cries; and he
was central to a number of civic initia-
tives, initially as an active volunteer
working magic on the ground - and in
more recent years at more strategic
levels.
He had attended the Carnsore anti-
nuclear protests in the s, as a
demonstrator.
Famously he initially went in to Car-
rickmines Castle (a major archaeological
complex under threat from the M
motorway), on a two-day hike in ;
but his stop-off merged with an interna-
tional cause célèbre in two Supreme
Court cases where he was plaintiff - one
of which he won.
Domo was an ideal plaintiff as he was
fearless, and penniless.
In those days – before the Aarhus
Convention – citizens risked losing their
home if they took cases in the public
interest to protect the environment.
Even public-interest court cases could
only be taken by the unfeasibly wealthy
or, alternatively and paradoxically, by a
citizen who didn’t own a home. Though
Carrickmines was lost it inspired many
other theatres of campaign around the
country. Public opinion as to the value
of protecting heritage shot up from
% to % during those years.
Environment, heritage and sustain-
ability entered the public consciousness
as the Celtic Tiger was sharpening its
claws – and all the while, Dominic would
gently strum his guitar, have a giggle
- and engage those around him on the
issues. Domo was winning the war.
Again with the now celebrated
Moore Street National Monument, his
was to be a crucial role – in chairing the
first meeting in of the successful
campaign that ultimately saved the last
headquarters of the Provisional
Republican Government – and the three
adjacent historic buildings. Culture
Minister Heather Humphreys wrote a
letter that was read at Domo’s humanist
funeral that acknowledged that without
him the monument would not have been
saved.
Yet Domo always said it was the Glen
of the Downs that was the key turning
point for environmental awareness in
Ireland. A campaign began in to
protect the nature reserve in Wicklow
where the road was being widened; a
world of tree houses, camp fires and
protest was rose, with – despite stresses
- a great deal of good fun! The Irish
media were fascinated. The Irish Times
ran articles such as ‘Party time in the
Glen of the Downs as eco-warriors get
out of their trees’ but it only whetted the
appetite of the ego-free but contrarian
protestors; and in the end they even
managed to get the width of the exten-
sion of the dual- carriageway cut back.
Principles were Dominic’s thing but
seeming intransigence could happily
switch to positive pragmatism – as long
as principles were not compromised,
and ideally a few more adopted for good
measure.
Originally born in Ballyfermot, he put
down roots in Clondalkin but lived the
last few years near Cloughjordan, Co
Tipperary, in the eco-village.
Those who met him would proclaim
his friendship with pride; and each of
his friends thought they were his best
friend. Among them was archaeologist
Dr Mark Clinton, who initially met
Dominic at Carrickmines where he was
actually site director of the archaeologi-
cal excavations – and with whom,
Dominic, this writer, and others close to
him, including Shirley O’Brien and the
late Stephen Devaney, subsequently
formed the National Monuments and
Antiquities Committee of An Taisce.
To say we miss him, would be, as
Domo would often cheerfully declare
– “to state the bleedin’ obvious”’. Our
heartfelt sympathies go foremost to his
family, including his former partners
Sheila and Jackie – and five children;
Katie, Ian, Orla, May, and Kiki – who
miss him most of all, and to whom he
was devoted beyond all else. For May
and Kiki, only seven and six years old, a
great light has gone out of their
childhood.
His work, his spirit, his sense of fun
and his values continuing to inspire.
Others might die for their country – but
Domo lived for his. And the awareness is
rising: as Domo would say, Beir bua! •
Campaigned for heritage against destruction of Carrickmines, Glen of the Downs and Moore St.
By Ruádhan MacEoin
Dominic Dunne: Obituary
