DAVAO CITY—The wanton disposal of plastic waste across the globe found another distressing finding by a university study, indicating high contamination of microplastics on salt brands sold on the shelves.
A report by Greenpeace from Seoul, South Korea, came out with the finding that “over 90 percent of sampled salt brands globally were found to contain microplastics.”
Asia, where almost all consumer products are repacked—mostly in plastics in the smallest affordable unit—contained the highest number of microplastics content in salt sourced in Asia, according to the study that was “codesigned” by Kim, Seung-Kyu, professor at Incheon University, and Greenpeace East Asia.
The study analyzed 39 various salt brands globally, the Greenpeace said, and showed that plastic contamination in sea salt was highest, followed by lake salt, then rock salt.
It said the contamination across major water forms was an indicator of the levels of plastic pollution in the areas where the salt was sourced.
The Greenpeace said only three of the salt brands studied did not contain any microplastic particles in the replicated samples. The study did not name the brands.
The Greenpeace said the study has been published in Environmental Science and Technology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, but also did not state the date of publication.
“Recent studies have found plastics in seafood, wildlife, tap water and now in salt. It’s clear that there is no escape from this plastics crisis, especially as it continues to leak into our waterways and oceans,” said Mikyoung Kim, campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia.
“We need to stop plastic pollution at its source. For the health of the people and our environment, it’s incredibly important that corporations reduce their reliance on throwaway plastics immediately.”
The Greenpeace said the research “is the first of its scale to look at contaminant levels of the geographical spread of sea salt, and its correlation with environmental discharge and pollution levels of plastics.”
It said there had been previous studies on microplastics contamination, which were built into the current research.
The study put Asia at the hot spot for global plastic pollution “meaning that the ecosystem and human health in Asian marginal seas could potentially be at greater risk because of severe maritime microplastics pollution.”
In one Indonesian sea salt sample, researchers found the highest quantities of microplastics. The country is considered to be the second-worst plastic emitter into the world’s oceans, the Greenpeace added.
“Assuming an intake of 10 grams per day of salt, the average adult consumer could ingest approximately 2,000 microplastics each year through salt alone, as the study suggests. Even after discounting the highly contaminated Indonesian salt sample from this study, the average adult could still be consuming many hundreds of microplastics each year,” it said
The Greenpeace said the findings would suggest that human ingestion of microplastics through marine products “is strongly related to plastic emissions in a given region,” said Professor Kim Seung-Kyu, corresponding author of the study.
“In order to limit our exposure to microplastics, preventative measures are required, such as controlling the environmental discharge of mismanaged plastics and, more importantly, reducing plastic waste” he added.
Earlier this month, Greenpeace along with the Break Free From Plastic coalition released a report naming a softdrinks company and another global name in food products as among the most frequent companies “whose packaging relies on the single-use plastics that pollute our oceans and waterways globally.”