Plastic also in kitchen salt: the new inquisitive study

In the salt we commonly consume there are traces of plastic. Nobody is saved, from the United States to China, via Europe. That we live on a planet now invaded by plastic is nothing new, but now this polluting material risks ending up (it certainly already does), on our plates every day.

New research previewed by the Guardian has shown that small particles have been found in sea salt used in various countries, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, China and the United States. The study comes within days of another analysis that made the world shiver. The research, conducted globally by Orb Media, a non-profit organization specializing in investigative journalism, found that 83% of "drinking water" samples are contaminated with plastic. In other words, billions of people drink drinking water contaminated with plastic particles. Now it's up to the salt too!

Researchers believe that most of the contamination comes from microplastics resulting from single-use items such as water bottles abandoned in the sea. According to the United Nations, up to 12.7 million tons of plastic ends up in oceans around the world every year.

"Not only are plastics pervasive in our society in terms of everyday use, but they are pervasive in the environment as well," said Sherri Mason, a professor at the State University of New York at Fredonia, who conducted the latest research on the presence of plastic in the salt. Plastics are “ubiquitous, in the air, in the water, in the seafood we eat, in the beer we drink, in the salt we use, plastic is everywhere,” says Mason.

Working with researchers from the University of Minnesota to examine microplastics in salt, beer and drinking water, the research looked at 12 different types of salt (including 10 sea salts) purchased from U.S. grocery stores around the world. The results are worrying: consuming 2.3 grams of salt per day could ingest up to 660 plastic particles per year. However, considering that even more is consumed in some countries than the recommended dose, this figure soars.

The impact of plastic ingestion on health is unknown. Scientists have been wondering for some time but with difficulty given that they cannot find a control group of humans who have never been exposed. "Everyone is exposed at some point at any time, from gestation to death," researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Arizona State University wrote in 2013. "Detectable levels of bisphenol A have been found in the urine of 95% of the adult population of the United States."

Another study, conducted in Malaysia, came to the same conclusion, finding that out of 17 sea salt brands sold in 8 different countries, only one was plastic-free. The rest of the samples had a total of 72 particles of which 1 in 10 contained microplastics.

A scenario that is not very reassuring given the daily use of salt. One more reason to reduce the quantities at the table.
(Source: Cooking salt: our daily dose of microplastics)