Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
Volume 25, Issue 30, Pages 30122-30131Publisher
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1007/s11356-018-3028-5
Keywords
Microplastics; Sea salts; Marine pollution; Sand filtration; Health effects
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Funding
- IIT Bombay Seed Grant [16IRCCSG018]
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This study reports the contamination of Indian sea salts with different microplastic particles, as a consequence of using contaminated sea water. Samples from all eight brands of investigated sea salts were found contaminated, and concentrations of these particles ranged from 103 +/- 39 to 56 +/- 49 particles kg(-1) of salt. Both fibers and fragments were observed with large variation in size. Eighty percent of the extracted fibers and the fragments were smaller than 2000m and 500m respectively. Extracted particles were mostly polyesters, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyamide, polyethylene, and polystyrene. Their total mass concentration was also estimated as 63.76gkg(-1) of salt. These results are significant, since India is a leading producer and exporter of sea salts. A simple sand filtration of artificially contaminated sea water could effectively (>85% removal by weight and >90% removal by number) remove these microplastics and has the potential for preventing the transfer of microplastics into the salt from contaminated sea waters.
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