Don’t f lush contact lenses down the loo!

Marine life put in danger as plastic breaks down

CONTACT lenses are threatening marine life because they can turn into harmful microplastics, scientists are warning.

Approximately 4.2million Britons wear contact lenses, including nearly one in ten of those aged 15 to 64.

But the lenses become plastic litter when flushed down the toilet or washed down the sink.

US chemists found that five polymers used in the lenses lose their structural strength when exposed to common microbes found in water treatment plants. They say this could break them down into microplastics that make their way into the sea to be swallowed by fish, which mistake them for food.

This, in turn, has led to fears that the human food chain could be contaminated.

The Daily Mail has campaigned against plastic waste for a decade, leading to a ban on the plastic microbeads used in face scrubs, toothpaste and shower gels. But up to one in five people still flush contact lenses down the sink or toilet, nationwide research in the US found.

Dr Rolf Haden, from Arizona State University, who co-authored the study, said: ‘I had worn glasses and contact lenses for most of my adult life.

‘But I started to wonder, has anyone done research on what happens to these plastic lenses?’

Researchers exposed five polymers used in daily disposable lenses to anaerobic and aerobic micro- organisms found in water treatment plants.

The results, which will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society, show the lens surfaces became weakened.

Varun Kelkar, from the university’s Biodesign Institute, said: ‘ We found there were noticeable changes in the bonds of the contact lenses after long-term treatment with the plant’s microbes.

‘When the plastic loses some of its structural strength, it will break down physically. This leads to smaller plastic particles which would ultimately lead to the formation of microplastics.’

Northumbrian Water warns that contact lenses, like cotton buds, are very hard to remove from sewage because they can squeeze through screens and pass through the whole treatment process before ending up in the waste water that flows into rivers or seas.

Contacts tend to be denser than water so sink, posing a threat to bottom- feeding marine animals that mistake microplastics for food.

The indigestible fragments fill their stomachs so they may die of starvation.

The researchers want labels on contact lens packets to tell users how to dispose of them properly.