Contamination of table salts from Turkey with microplastics

ABSTRACT

Microplastics (MPs) pollution has become a problem that affects all aquatic, atmospheric and terrestial environments in the world. In this study, we looked into whether MPs in seas and lakes reach consumers through table salt. For this purpose, we obtained 16 brands of table salts from the Turkish market and determined their MPs content with microscopic and Raman spectroscopic examination. According to our results, the MP particle content was 16–84 item/kg in sea salt, 8–102 item/kg in lake salt and 9–16 item/kg in rock salt. The most common plastic polymers were polyethylene (22.9%) and polypropylene (19.2%). When the amounts of MPs and the amount of salt consumed by Turkish consumers per year are considered together, if they consume sea salt, lake salt or rock salt, they consume 249–302, 203–247 or 64–78 items per year, respectively. This is the first time this concerning level of MPs content in table salts in the Turkish market has been reported.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Microplastic
• table salt
• contamination
• food security
• Turkey

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Mehmet Kahraman from the chemistry department of Gaziantep University for providing the opportunity to use the Raman spectro instrument and Prof. Cem Cevik to help interpret the results.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.