Sea salt around the world has been contaminated by plastic pollution, adding to experts’ fears that microplastics are becoming ubiquitous in the environment and entering our food chain via the salt in our diets. New studies have shown that tiny particles have been found in sea salt in United Kingdom (UK), France, Spain, China and now the United States (US).
Researchers believe the majority of the contamination comes from microfibres and single-use plastics such as water bottles, which are items that comprise the majority of plastic waste.
Sherri Mason, a professor at the State University of New York, collaborated with researchers at the University of Minnesota to examine microplastics in salt, beer and drinking water. Her research looked at 12 different kinds of salt bought from US grocery stores around the world.
Mason’s work adds to research on plastics in salt from other countries around the world, for example Spain. In August, Spanish researchers concluded “sea products are irredeemably contaminated by microplastics” and there is “a background presence of microplastics in the environment”, in a study published in Scientific Reports in Nature.
The health impact of ingesting plastic is not known. Scientists have struggled to research the impact of plastic on the human body, because they cannot find a control group of humans who have not been exposed.
“There is no clear effect on human health because there are no studies on that subject,” said Juan Conesa, a professor who conducted research on sea salt at the University of Alicante in Spain.
Mason believes that people would be shocked to know that plastic pollution contaminated multiple foods and beverages that people consume every day, including salt. “We have to focus on the flow of plastic and the pervasiveness of plastics in our society and find other materials to be using instead.”
Some environmentalists have said the threat of plastic pollution now “rivals climate change”.
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Source: The Guardian, 8 September 2017