Microplastic Pollution in Table Salts from China

Abstract

Microplastics have been found in seas all over the world. We hypothesize that sea salts might contain microplastics, because they are directly supplied by seawater. To test our hypothesis, we collected 15 brands of sea salts, lake salts, and rock/well salts from supermarkets throughout China. The microplastics content was 550-681 particles/kg in sea salts, 43-364 particles/kg in lake salts, and 7-204 particles/kg in rock/well salts. In sea salts, fragments and fibers were the prevalent types of particles compared with pellets and sheets. Microplastics measuring less than 200 μm represented the majority of the particles, accounting for 55% of the total microplastics, and the most common microplastics were polyethylene terephthalate, followed by polyethylene and cellophane in sea salts. The abundance of microplastics in sea salts was significantly higher than that in lake salts and rock/well salts. This result indicates that sea products, such as sea salts, are contaminated by microplastics. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on microplastic pollution in abiotic sea products.

Microplastics in Taihu Lake, China

“…The verification of microplastics using a m-FT-IR microscopy followed the method describe by Yang et al (2015). All spectra were compared with a data base (Hummel Polymer and Additives, Polymer Laminate Films, Cross Sections Wizard, HR Specta IR Demo, Aldrich Vapor Phase Sample Library) to verify the individual plastic item.…”

“…Accumulating evidence has suggested that microplastics can bring adverse effects on energy metabolism, immunity and even reproduction of organisms (Wright et al, 2013;Sussarellu et al, 2016;Galloway and Lewis, 2016). Microplastics can also be retained through the food chain and enter human bodies through diverse pathways (Farrell and Nelson, 2013;Seltenrich, 2015;Yang et al, 2015). Therefore, we need to pay close attention to the high levels of microplastic contamination in Taihu Lake and any possible human health risk from consumption of fishery products.…”

“…Synthetic polymer from biomass derived is also regarded as microplastic in a recent report of UNEP (2016). Cellophane has been defined as microplastic in previous studies (Denuncio et al, 2011;Yang et al, 2015). Many plastics labelled as biodegradable will breakdown completely only when subjected to prolonged temperatures above 50 C, and biodegradable plastic seems to be a "false solution" for ocean waste problem (UNEP, 2016).…”

“…Microplastics have even been found in abiotic sea products such as sea salts (Yang et al, 2015). However, the occurrence of microplastics in freshwater environments is less understood (Driedger et al, 2015;Eerkes-Medrano et al, 2015).…”

Production of Polyhydroxyalkanoates Copolymers by Recombinant <b><i>Pseudomonas</i></b> in Plasmid- and Antibiotic-Free Cultures

“…Very recently, organisms able to degrade petrochemical plastics have been described [Wierckx et al, 2015]. One of the biggest concerns is the low degradation rates of these plastics allowing its accumulation in landfills, oceans, among other ecosystems [Chen and Patel, 2012], resulting in problems in harmful solid waste disposal management, likely to penetrate the food chain [Browne et al, 2008;Yang et al, 2015]. One alternative to these materials are the polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA).…”