Scientists: all sea salt in the world is contaminated with plastic

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Scientists have discovered that sea salt around the world is contaminated with plastic, and through it microplastics penetrates even into the human food chain.

Tiny particles of plastic were found in sea salt in the UK, France, Spain, China, and the USA, reports The idealist.

Scientists suggest that most of the pollution comes from microfibers and disposable plastics, such as water bottles, which make up most of the plastic waste. According to the United Nations, up to 12,7 million tons of plastic annually falls into the world's oceans.

According to Sherry Mason, a professor at New York University at Fredonia, plastic is everywhere in the modern world, “in the air, the water, the seafood we eat, the beer we drink, the salt we use, etc.”

The study found that Americans consume more than 660 particles of plastic every year if they follow the advice of health professionals who recommend eating 2,3 a gram of salt per day. However, most Americans eat much more, because doctors believe that 90% of Americans eat too much salt.

How the use of plastic affects health is not yet known. Scientists tried to investigate its effects on the human body, but could not find a control group of people who would not be exposed to it before the study.

“To some extent, everyone is exposed to it at any time, from being in the womb to death. Detectable levels of plastic bisphenol A were found in the urine of 95% of the adult population of the United States, ”researchers from the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Arizona State University found in 2013.

Scientists noted that "There is no evidence of a clear impact of plastic on human health at the moment, but increasing the amount of plastics in general in the environment will also increase this impact,” meaning that it may appear in the future.

Approximately one million plastic bottles are bought in the world in a minute, and their processing speed does not correspond to production rates, which, according to forecasts, will increase four-fold by the year 1. Some environmentalists claim that the threat of plastic pollution is now "vying with the threat of climate change."

In August, Spanish researchers concluded that “marine products are irreversibly contaminated with microplastics”. Scientists checked the 21 type of table salt and found plastic in all samples. The most common type of plastic that they found was polyethylene terephthalate, the material used to make plastic bottles.

This spring, a team of scientists from France, the UK and Malaysia tested 17 salt species from eight different countries. They found plastic in all but one of the samples, and found that most of the plastic was made of polyethylene and polypropylene.

Scientists first discovered plastics in salt in China in 2015. Microscopic plastic particles from facial scrubs, cosmetics, and shards of plastic bottles were found in 15 samples of salt products found in Chinese grocery stores.

Researchers now believe that sea salt may be more vulnerable to plastic pollution due to the dewatering process of sea water.

Also, plastic has penetrated into many foods and drinks that people consume every day. For example, in beer.

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