Humans estimated to consume up to 700 particles of plastic per year. And it is a bad thing.
Maybe this is something new for you or you know it all along: that anything coming from the ocean is bound to be contaminated by what scientists call microplastics. Researchers warned consumers that their seafood most likely to consumed plastic before its death, but not everyone consumes seafood and many of us didn't know this warning.
But salt contaminated by plastic is something else. Because all of us consume salt in our daily basis, whether it's directly put into our dish or the consumption of the food that already been salted.
This year, several different groups of researchers confirmed that plastics were mixed in with dozens of different salts found around the world. One of the latest reports are from August, in which researchers found plastics in all 21 types of salt tested, and an unreleased report from the State University of New York at Fredonia, where 12 salts from U.S stores were tested.
The amount of salt recommended for consumption per day, which is less than an ounce, humans could be consuming up to 660 particles of plastic each year, Sherri Mason, the leader of the State University of New York study said that estimated 90% of Americans eat more than recommended amount each day so this number can be higher.
“Not only are plastics pervasive in our society in terms of daily use, but they are pervasive in the environment,” said Mason. Plastics are “ubiquitous, in the air, water, the seafood we eat, the beer we drink, the salt we use – plastics are just everywhere.”
Humans throw plastic in the ocean for about 13 million tons each year, so it's not that surprising if the seafood is being contaminated. This problem of plastic pollution could soon get to the effect level of climate change. Many of these plastics are from plastic bottles and microbeads from face-face washes and toothpaste. This plastics eventually break down and become many pieces of microplastic floating around in the ocean.
The true effects of ingested plastic in the body of humans is unknown for one creepy reason: scientists are unable to locate any people that have not already been exposed to the ingestion of plastic.
“Everybody is being exposed to some degree at any given time, from gestation through death,” said researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Arizona State University. “Detectable levels of [the plastic] bisphenol A have been found in the urine of 95% of the adult population of the United States.”
This is truly alarming, but since we don't know how long salt contaminated with plastic, it's not that surprising anymore. The latest report on salts also comes soon after news of plastic being found in tap water, even worse, the human doesn't seem to slow down using plastics and horrible disposal of it in the ocean. A recent report found that plastic bottles are being consumed at a rate of 1 million per second all around the world, and that number is expected to rise to quadruple by 2050.
“There is no clear effect on human health because there are no studies on that subject,” said Juan Conesa, a professor who conducted research on sea salt at the University of Alicante in Spain. “But the increase of plastics in general in the environment will also [increase exposure].”
Salts from the grocery store come from all around the world, including Australia, France, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Portugal and South Africa. So it's hard to find a salt that isn't contaminated. To prevent this thing to go worse, we need to lessen our plastic consumption.
“I hope what comes from this is not that [consumers] just switch brands and try to find something that’s table salt or mined salt,” Mason said. “People want to disconnect, and say, ‘It’s OK if I go to Starbucks every day and get that disposable coffee cup …’ We have to focus on the flow of plastic and the pervasiveness of plastics in our society and find other materials to be used instead.”
SOURCE: LIFE4FITMAMA
