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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday October 21 2018, @06:46AM   Printer-friendly
from the salty-about-plastic dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Microplastics were found in sea salt several years ago. But how extensively plastic bits are spread throughout the most commonly used seasoning remained unclear. Now, new research shows microplastics in 90 percent of the table salt brands sampled worldwide.

Of 39 salt brands tested, 36 had microplastics in them, according to a new analysis by researchers in South Korea and Greenpeace East Asia. Using prior salt studies, this new effort is the first of its scale to look at the geographical spread of microplastics in table salt and their correlation to where plastic pollution is found in the environment.

"The findings suggest that human ingestion of microplastics via marine products is strongly related to emissions in a given region," said Seung-Kyu Kim, a marine science professor at Incheon National University in South Korea.

[...] The new study, she says, "shows us that microplastics are ubiquitous. It's not a matter of if you are buying sea salt in England, you are safe."

The new study estimates that the average adult consumes approximately 2,000 microplastics per year through salt. What that means remains a mystery.

A separate study by the University of York in Britain that sought to assess the risks of microplastics to the environment, published Wednesday, concluded not enough is known to determine if microplastics cause harm.

[...] That new study, funded by the Personal Care Products Council, an industry trade group, was published in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

Boxall added that the focus on microplastics may divert attention from worse environmental (and more easily identifiable) pollution problems, such as small particles released from car tires.

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Blymie on Sunday October 21 2018, @09:51AM (6 children)

    by Blymie (4020) on Sunday October 21 2018, @09:51AM (#751597)

    If you read the original study summary, not the National Geographic story -- you'll see that at no time was "table salt" mentioned. Nope. Instead, they looked at rock salt, lake salt, and sea salt... and touted themselves as the first study that could accurately trace the sources of each.

    No "90%" of table salt was mentioned, in fact I didn't even see a 90% figure! But even if it was 90%, it was 90% of the above salts OR a claim that 90% of all table salt is one of the above.

    If you live in North America, almost ALL table salt comes from salt mines from old inland seas. It's been buried for millennia. It has no issues with plastic, none, nada. And that's what most Americans, Canadians, and I suspect Mexicans and others eat.

    Maybe things are different in the EU... although I suspect we can dig up our salt, and ship it boxed to the EU cheaper than other methods of salt reclamation.

    So OK, fine.. sea salt is borked. But we already *knew* that anyhow, right? Because table salt has something else in it. Iodine.

    In Canada, it's law. Iodine MUST be added to table salt. In the US, it's not law -- but fairly standard. And why?

    Well, you can NOT, absolutely not get enough iodine without marine life... and no, an occasional tuna sandwich won't cut it. And without enough iodine?

    Birth defects. Issues with the thyroid. Issues for children.

    So all these hippies and their sea salt, are likely not getting enough iodine in their diet as well... and now we find out they're getting a shit tonne of plastic.

    Sigh.

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @11:14AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 21 2018, @11:14AM (#751618)

    If you live in North America, almost ALL table salt comes from salt mines from old inland seas. It's been buried for millennia. It has no issues with plastic, none, nada. And that's what most Americans, Canadians, and I suspect Mexicans and others eat.

    When you buy your salt, what sort of container does it come in?

    I'm looking at the Saxa salt container sitting here on the table in front of me, the salt is probably from a mine in Cheshire, England, was laid down in the Triassic, 220 million years ago...no plastic (that is, unless some of the more outré theories about the dinosaurs are true..)

    Pity, the container is made of plastic (HDPE with a noticeably rough to touch surface finish, both external and internally) and that the salt it contains has been crushed into fine abrasive crystals..

    Sure, we're talking microscopically small abraded quantities, but it all adds up..

    • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday October 22 2018, @03:27PM

      by urza9814 (3954) on Monday October 22 2018, @03:27PM (#752003) Journal

      When you buy your salt, what sort of container does it come in?

      Unless you're buying individual pre-filled salt shakers, most salt that I see comes in cardboard cylinders or paper sacks. Sometimes small metal cans too. Can't recall ever seeing bulk salt in plastic, though I'm sure it exists...

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by bradley13 on Sunday October 21 2018, @01:25PM (2 children)

    by bradley13 (3053) on Sunday October 21 2018, @01:25PM (#751635) Homepage Journal

    Clickbait? Not really. The summary adds a bit of alarmism that's not present in the study, but the study is bad enough [acs.org]. According to the abstract, they did analyze table salt, with most of their samples being brands that claim to be "sea salt". Which makes sense, because "prehistoric" sea salt out of a mine will not contain any microplastics. So there's no reason to analyse it, because the findings are already known.

    The takeaway from the study is what we already know: Asia is a disaster. Most plastic entering the ocean comes down Asian rivers (with Africa in second place). This comes from having large populations with no effective waste disposal systems.

    You know, if second- and third-world countries want the first world to pay for CO2 pollution, I think we should insist that they pay for plastic pollution. IMHO, plastics in the oceans are a far more serious environmental threat than the (seriously over-hyped) AGW happening from CO2.

    --
    Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday October 21 2018, @11:15PM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Sunday October 21 2018, @11:15PM (#751802) Journal

      This comes from having large populations with no effective waste disposal systems.

      Try again.
      You'll discover the 'civilized' way to waste disposal is to 'export' the waste to Asia and Africa.
      We'll, China says now [nbcnews.com] 'you can keep you garbage':

      A global crisis over what to do with millions of tons of discarded plastic and other trash is becoming even more difficult after China decided last year to stop importing much of the waste. In some cases, that means used paper and plastic containers that Americans intend to recycle are actually ending up in landfills, waste company managers say.

      China has imported 45 percent of the world's plastic refuse since 1992, allowing many other countries, including the United States, to dodge the question of how to process the unwanted material, a recent study found.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @03:06AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @03:06AM (#752323)

      Which makes sense, because "prehistoric" sea salt out of a mine will not contain any microplastics. So there's no reason to analyse it, because the findings are already known.

      No reason? If you're a real scientist it'll be one of your control/comparison groups. And if it still shows up plastic then either you're doing stuff wrong or maybe your paper needs a different title...

      But if you're a "publish crap career scientist" then you leave stuff like that decades later for a more "definitive study" before you retire.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by woodcruft on Sunday October 21 2018, @01:42PM

    by woodcruft (6528) on Sunday October 21 2018, @01:42PM (#751645)

    So OK, fine.. sea salt is borked. But we already *knew* that anyhow, right? Because table salt has something else in it. Iodine. In Canada, it's law. Iodine MUST be added to table salt. In the US, it's not law -- but fairly standard. And why? Well, you can NOT, absolutely not get enough iodine without marine life... and no, an occasional tuna sandwich won't cut it. And without enough iodine? Birth defects. Issues with the thyroid. Issues for children.

    In the UK we get most of our daily iodine requirement from milk.

    Apparently this happened largely by accident. During the '30s it was decided by the government ministry, to specify what feed for cows should contain & I guess some vet thought it should contain iodine, so it did.

    As a result, excess iodine was expressed in the cow's milk which was then drunk by humans.

    Result: goitre, cretinism and hypothyroidism prevalence dropped like a stone!

    I listened to a clinical epidemiologist talk about it on the BBC World Service. She also mentioned that she had looked at IQ results for kids. The children of vegan mothers tended to have lowered IQs and she reckoned it was due to subclinical congenital cretinism. ie. because mum didn't drink milk they were short of iodine. During the winter months the average person gets some 70% of their iodine from milk; it's less during the rest of the year because the cows are out to pasture and hence consuming less man-made feed.

    So we're on a downward trend: braindead 'dedicated follower of fashion' mother becomes vegan to 'save the planet' and produces even more braindead progeny.

    Fermi's Paradox is because of vegans ;)

    --
    :wq!