With the growing concern of Microplastics presence in our food to our organs like lungs, heart and even in newborn babies, it seems to be more than a creeping catastrophe affecting us as revealed by Toxics Link, an environmental research organisation.
They published a study on Tuesday named 'Microplastics in Salt and Sugar' which revealed that whether you buy salt & sugar from your local market or through an online store, it will have the presence of harmful microplastics in one form or another.
What are Microplastics?
Microplastics are small crystalline plastic particles less than 5mm in diameter which are formed when either small or large plastic items like plastic bags, poly fibres, bottles, plastic pellets degrade over time under the influence of sunlight and weathering.
What does the report say?
Toxics Link tested around 10 different types of salt like table salt, rock salt, sea salt and local raw salt along with the five types of sugar from both online and local markets. And according to their study, presence of microplastics, ranging from 0.1 mm to 5 mm, are found in all salt and sugar samples in the forms of fibre, pellets, films and fragments.
Toxics Link founder-director Ravi Agarwal said, "The objective of our study was to contribute to the existing scientific database on microplastics so that the global plastic treaty can address this issue in a concrete and focused manner." "We also aim to trigger policy action and attract researchers' attention to potential technological interventions that could reduce exposure risks to microplastics."
Toxics Link associate director Satish Sinha added, "Our study's finding of substantial amounts of microplastics in all salt and sugar samples is concerning and calls for urgent, comprehensive research into the long-term health impacts of microplastics on human health."
According to the report, the concentration of microplastics in the salt samples ranged from 6.71 to 89.15 pieces per kilogram of dry weight, whereas it ranged from 1.85 to 68.25 pieces per kilogram in sugar samples.
This seems more concerning when you look at the salt and sugar consumption by an average Indian person on a daily basis. According to a study, an average Indian consumes 10.98 grams of salt and around 10 spoons of sugar every day which is way more than what the World Health Organization recommends.