Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone has signed a bill into law that bans the sale of personal care products that contain microbeads. The sale of those products will be phased out in the county, starting in 2018.
A study released last month by Southern Connecticut State University says microbeads are polluting Long Island Sound.
Bellone says microbeads are bad for the environment.
"These microbeads are passing through water filtration systems, without disintegrating, and they are ending up in the water supply contaminating that and the food chain as they are digested by different sea life," he said.
Suffolk County is now the third and largest county in New York State to ban microbeads. In April, New York’s State Assembly passed a bill to ban microbeads statewide. The bill stalled in the Senate.
Nine states have bans on microbeads, including California and Connecticut.