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Fulton Schools: In the News

Before You Flush Your Contact Lenses, You Might Want to Know This

Before You Flush Your Contact Lenses, You Might Want to Know This

Today’s contact lenses are made of tough plastics — tough enough that they don’t fully break down even after going through wastewater treatment plants. That’s causing a growing problem for the environment. Research led by Fulton Schools Professor Rolf Halden, director of the Center for Environmental Health Engineering, has found that tons of plastic disposable contacts are going down the drain and eventually ending up in rivers, lake and oceans, where fish, birds and other animals consume them — to the detriment of their health. Plus, all those contact lenses are adding to the mounting problem of microplastic pollution.

See Also: Flushing your contact lenses down the drain is adding plastic waste to oceans, USA Today, August 19

Here’s how your contact lenses may be polluting the ocean, Time magazine, August 20

Contact lenses are a surprising source of pollution, Scientific American, August 20

Contact lenses don’t belong in your toilet, Popular Science, August 20

Why are so many Americans flushing their contacts down the toilet, The Atlantic, August 19

Why you should not flush your contact lens down the toilet or sink, Forbes, August 19

Flushed contact lenses add to burden of plastic waste, The Times (UK), August 20

Flushed contact lenses are big source of microplastic pollution,  Daily Mail (UK), August 20

Plastic pollution: ‘Stop flushing contact lenses down the loo,’ BBC News, August 19

Old contact lenses add to microplastic pollution, Radio Canada International, August 20

How flushed contact lenses add to microplastic pollution in waterways, CBC News (Canada)

Researchers warn that flushed contact lenses are big source of microplastic pollution, The Hindu (India), August 22

Don’t throw those contact lenses down the drain, ASU NOW, August 19

Stop and read this before you wash your contact lenses down the drain, Science Alert, August 20

Flushing disposable contact lenses is adding to plastics pollution, Yahoo News, August 20

Do you flush your contact lenses? Here’s why you should stop, CNN/3TV & CBS 5 News – Phoenix

Why you probably shouldn’t flush away your contacts, Refinery 29, August 19

Contact lenses end up in the ocean endangering sealife, Euronews, August 19

Contact lenses down the drain may cause pollution, New China, August 20

Don’t flush contact lenses after use – bad for environment, News-Medical.Net., August 20

Contact lenses flushed down the drain adds plastic waste to oceans, Chicago Sun-Times, August 20

Flushing your contacts does terrible things to our land and oceans, Mother Jones, August 20

Stop washing your gross contact lenses down the drain, Gizmodo, August 21

Study: Stop flushing your contact lenses down the drain, Channel 12 News (Phoenix)

New study finds contact lenses contributing to pollution in oceans, KMOV4 News (St. Louis)

ASU study: Don’t throw your contact lenses down the drain, KYMA-NBC News (Yuma, Arizona), August 20

Study: Stop flushing your contact lenses down the drain, WLTX9 News (Columbia, South Carolina) August 21

Are you getting rid of your contact lenses the right way? 6ABC News – Philadelphia, August 20

Here’s why you shouldn’t flush your contact lenses down the drain, Insider, August 22

Flushed contact lenses are big source of microplastic pollution, Click Lancashire, August 23

Contact lenses are causing environmental pollution, The San Diego Union-Tribune/New York Daily News, August 23

Why you shouldn’t flush your contacts down the drain, Science Friday, National Public Radio, August 24

Flushing your contact lenses is killing the environment, The University Network, August 24

Contact lenses: A hidden plastic waste problem, Care2, August 24

ASU study: Flushing contact lenses can harm environment, KTAR News – Phoenix, August 26

Study finds contact lenses break into microplastics at wastewater plants, Water & Wastes Digest, August 29

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