The DOI matches its Crossref record; 5 of the 5 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The presence of microplastics in commercial salts from different countries
Open accessAbstract
The occurrence of microplastics (MPs) in saltwater bodies is relatively well studied, but nothing is known about their presence in most of the commercial salts that are widely consumed by humans across the globe. Here, we extracted MP-like particles larger than 149 μm from 17 salt brands originating from 8 different countries followed by the identification of their polymer composition using micro-Raman spectroscopy. Microplastics were absent in one brand while others contained between 1 to 10 MPs/Kg of salt. Out of the 72 extracted particles, 41.6% were plastic polymers, 23.6% were pigments, 5.50% were amorphous carbon, and 29.1% remained unidentified. The particle size (mean ± SD) was 515 ± 171 μm. The most common plastic polymers were polypropylene (40.0%) and polyethylene (33.3%). Fragments were the primary form of MPs (63.8%) followed by filaments (25.6%) and films (10.6%). According to our results, the low level of anthropogenic particles intake from the salts (maximum 37 particles per individual per annum) warrants negligible health impacts. However, to better understand the health risks associated with salt consumption, further development in extraction protocols are needed to isolate anthropogenic particles smaller than 149 μm.
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Cites
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Microplastic pollution in the surface waters of the Laurentian Great Lakes
Eriksen, M., Mason, S., Wilson, S., Box, C., Zellers, A., Edwards, W., Farley, H., & Amato, S. (2013) · Marine Pollution Bulletin · doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2013.10.007 · Cited by 1,937 · cited 1×
“The widespread distribution of MPs in aquatic bodies is well documented, such as in the Celtic sea 8 , Laurentian Great Lakes 9 , Persian Gulf 10 , and in sub-tropical gyres 11 .”
Microplastic pollution in deep-sea sediments
Van Cauwenberghe, L., Vanreusel, A., Mees, J., & Janssen, C. R. (2013) · Environmental Pollution · doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2013.08.013 · Cited by 1,575
Plastic accumulation in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre
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Salt intakes around the world: implications for public health
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“Sodium is an essential element for the human body to maintain homeostasis and is mainly consumed as common salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) 18 .”
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Human Consumption of Microplastics
Cox, K. D., Covernton, G. A., Davies, H. L., Dower, J. F., Juanes, F., & Dudas, S. E. (2019) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/acs.est.9b01517 · Cited by 2,745
Environmental exposure to microplastics: An overview on possible human health effects
Prata, J. C., da Costa, J. P., Lopes, I., Duarte, A. C., & Rocha-Santos, T. (2020) · Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134455 · Cited by 2,690
Kumar, R., Verma, A., Shome, A., Sinha, R., Sinha, S., Jha, P. K., Kumar, R., Kumar, P., Shubham, Das, S., et al. (2021) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su13179963 · Cited by 1,111
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Metadata
- Authors
- Karami, A., Golieskardi, A., Keong Choo, C., Larat, V., Galloway, T. S., & Salamatinia, B.
- Venue
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2017-04-06
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 46173-46173
- ISSN
- 2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2604924339
- Cited by
- 652
- References
- 5
- FWCI
- 18.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
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- Karami, A., Golieskardi, A., Keong Choo, C., Larat, V., Galloway, T. S., & Salamatinia, B. (2017). The presence of microplastics in commercial salts from different countries. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep46173
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