Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 18 submissions in the queue.
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


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Sunday October 21 2018, @12:17PM (2 children)

    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Sunday October 21 2018, @12:17PM (#751623) Journal

    Title cribbed from National Geographic is intentionally misleading. If you go past the article in Nat Geo to the actual study, this is explicitly regarding various brands of Sea Salt.
    .
    Do any searh for sea salt or sea salt vs. table salt for piles of comparisons of the two as separate and distinct.
    .
    This is not about standard refined common table salt.
    .
    AFAIK Sea Salt, while all the rage, is nowhere close to ousting normal table salt in the cupboards of Ma and Pa Kettle.

    --
    В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday October 21 2018, @12:37PM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Sunday October 21 2018, @12:37PM (#751626) Journal

    https://www.quora.com/How-is-it-legal-to-list-sea-salt-as-an-ingredient-in-foods [quora.com]

    Quora man says sea salt isn't regulated and you can call any kind of salt "sea salt".

    If that's the case, then the faker stuff could be the safer option. Go ahead, crush up some activated charcoal into some salt and call it bespoke.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday October 21 2018, @02:04PM

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Sunday October 21 2018, @02:04PM (#751649)

      This is assuming that microplastics are bad for you. I would assume they are, but I doubt that we'll ever get a non-biased statistically significant controlled study.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]