A recent study in China shows the discovery of plastic from water bottles in table salt in China. Researchers found that sea salt has the highest amount of contamination, as for every pound of sea salt, there are 250+ particles of plastic in it. They speculate that the source of this contamination comes from plastic bottles that are not properly disposed of, as well as the micro-beads from face washes and other cosmetics that have entered the ocean. Huahong Shi and his team estimate that if a person were to eat the World Health Organization's recommended dose, then they will have ingested 1,000 microparticles of plastic a year. Sherri Mason of the SUNY Fredonia adds that “Plastics have become such a ubiquitous contaminant, I doubt it matters whether you look for plastic in sea salt on Chinese or American supermarket shelves. I’d like to see some ‘metoo’ studies."
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ReflectionThis is one of the scariest ScrAPES I've done so far. Knowing that there could be traces of plastic in the salt that I eat pretty much everyday is truly eye-opening. I am assuming that health departments are coming up with methods to reduce the level of plastics in our salt, but the article spoke of none. For the first time, I really have no idea what to do to protect myself from this issue, because salt is in practically in EVERYTHING we eat. The best thing I can think of is to stop putting salt on my food if it is avoidable.
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