Sweet-smelling facial scrubs. Attractive cleansers. When such products contain microbeads, buyer beware.These products are not as harmless as they look.

President Obama recently signed a bill that outlawed the selling and distributing of all personal-care and beauty products containing microbeads: tiny plastic particles used as exfoliating and cleansing agents that contain many synthetic compounds.

Microbeads pose severe, negative impacts on the environment and endanger wildlife. Last fall, the Environmental Science & Technology  reported that “more than 8 trillion microbeads were entering the country’s aquatic habitats daily.” When these microplastic particles are washed down the drain into water treatment plants, they are released into larger bodies of water, in which many deadly toxins are absorbed.

Fish and other aquatic organisms mistake these three-millimeter synthetic polymers for food and consume them unknowingly, meaning these harmful microbeads could easily end up on our dinner plates.

The 2015 Microbead-Free Waters Act requires all personal-care manufacturers to eliminate microbeads from all their products by 2017.