Plastic in Table Salt in China
Most table salts in China have microscopic pieces of plastic due to plastic pollution. Researchers analyzed 15 different brands of table salts in China, where they found pieces of plastic that are commonly found in plastic bottles. Some brands had 3 particles per pound while others were up to 165 particles. Most of the plastic in these salts are likely getting into the product because of plastic pollution in the ocean. Sea water is evaporated to leave the salt behind. However microscopic pieces of plastic are also left behind. It is also possible that plastic is coming from processing stage. Average citizens in China will consume about 1,000 microscopic pieces of plastic every day from salt.
While this is a very scary problem, the people of China are limited on options and it seems unavoidable. Since these pieces of plastic is coming from the ocean, the first step would be to make efforts to stopping plastic pollution. Then afterwards large plastics need to be removed from the ocean. But after that, removing microscopic pieces would be very difficult and would be very expensive. There would also have to be regulations on the amount of plastic that can be found in salt products. Companies would have to reach a certain requirement in order to sell their product to the public.