Study Finds Average Adult Ingests 2,000
Pieces of Microplastic Per Year
A year after researchers at a New York University discovered
microplastics present in sea salt thanks to widespread plastic pollution, researchers in South Korea set out to find out how pervasive the problem is—and found that 90 percent of salt brands commonly used in homes around the world contain the tiny pieces of plastic.
microplastics present in sea salt thanks to widespread plastic pollution, researchers in South Korea set out to find out how pervasive the problem is—and found that 90 percent of salt brands commonly used in homes around the world contain the tiny pieces of plastic.
The new research, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology,suggests
that the average adult ingests about 2,000 microplastics per year due to the
presence of plastics in the world's oceans and lakes.
Examining
39 brands sold in 21 countries, researchers at Incheon National University and
Greenpeace East Asia found microplastics in 36 of them. The three table salts
that did not contain the substance were sold in France, Taiwan, and China—but
Asia overall was the site of some of the worst plastic pollution.
The study "shows us that microplastics are ubiquitous," Sherri Mason, who conducted last year's salt study at the State University of New York at Fredonia, told National Geographic. "It's not a matter of if you are buying sea salt in England, you are safe."
Greenpeace
East Asia found a strong link between the level of plastic pollution in a given
part of the world and the amount of microplastics people in those regions
are inadvertently ingesting each year.
"The findings suggest that human ingestion of microplastics via marine products is strongly related to emissions in a given region," Seung-Kyu Kim, a co-author of the study, told National Geographic.
Nat Geo Travel put it succinctly on Twitter:
The more we consume plastics, the more we literally consume plastics https://on.natgeo.com/2Ah03kd 7:00 AM - Oct 18, 2018
Indonesia,
it was found in an unrelated 2015 study, has the world's
second-highest level of plastic pollution. The researchers in South Korea
discovered that the country's table salt brands also contain the most
microplastics.
"That
fact that they found higher counts in Asia is interesting. While not
surprising, you still have to have the data," Mason said. "The
earlier studies found traces of microplastics in salt products sold in those
countries, but we haven't known how much."
Erik
Solheim, the executive director of the United Nations Environmental Program,
called the study "more evidence of the frightening proliferation of
plastic pollution"—and expressed hope that studies like this one would
encourage more governments and companies around the world to sharply reduce their use of plastics.