Maryland calls on EPA to address microfiber pollution

BALTIMORE — Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown has joined a coalition of 16 states urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to address microfiber pollution, the Attorney General’s Office announced Monday. 

In a letter, the states urge the EPA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to evaluate their authority under the Clean Water Act to regulate microfiber pollution.

“The United States needs to join other countries that are already helping prevent plastic microfibers from choking our environment and public health,” Attorney General Brown said.      

The Attorney General’s office said 640,000 to 1,500,000 plastic microfibers are shed from synthetic clothing during wash cycles, making them a main source of microplastic pollution in the world’s water. 

The state also said microfibers are a harm to human health.  “Microfibers can be associated with hormonal cancers, reproductive problems including infertility, metabolic disorders including diabetes and obesity, asthma, and neurodevelopmental disorders including autism,” the Attorney General’s office said. 

The letter urges the EPA and NOAA to invest funding into research into the harms of microfibers to human health, and invest in microfiber capture technologies, such as washing machine microfiber filtration systems.  

The Attorney General’s office said these technologies have already been acknowledged as potential solutions by the EPA, and that the agency should “act on its own recommendations.”