Commercial salts purchased in Australia, including sea, table, rock, black, and fine/coarse pink salts.
Source details
Aswin Kuttykattil, Subash Raju, Kanth Swaroop Vanka, Geetika Bhagwat, Maddison Carbery, Salom Gnana Thanga Vincent, Sudhakaran Raja, Thava Palanisami. Environmental Science and Pollution Research. 2022.
DOI: 10.1007/s11356-022-22101-0
Findings
Fibers and fragments were observed across salt types. ATR-FTIR identified several synthetic polymers and also rayon/cellulose acetate among the authors’ MP classifications. The category includes these material-classification caveats rather than treating all study-classified material as persistent synthetic plastic.
Scroll horizontally for methods and measurement limits.
| Reported result | Conditions | Size context | Original locator |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85.19 ± 63.04 study-classified particles/kg of salt | Selected commercial salt types purchased in Australia; dissolution/peroxide treatment/microscopy and selected ATR-FTIR | Observed particles 23.2 µm-3.9 mm; quantification restricted to particles >20 µm | PDF p. 6 (printed 935), first paragraph; methods pp. 3-4 |
Methods and scope
Salt dissolution, peroxide digestion, fine membrane filtration, microscopy and Nile Red screening, ATR-FTIR library comparison, and SEM-EDS. Particles pooled within salt type for spectroscopic selection. Blanks processed in triplicate showed no particles. Chemical assignment constrained by particle size and variable match quality.
What this source can support
Direct salt occurrence and polymer-characterization evidence extending beyond sea salt.
Selected retail samples, not national representativeness. The author-defined MP group includes regenerated cellulose materials; classification differs from strict synthetic-plastic-only results. Some small particles and transparent sheets lacked usable spectra. Abstract/result discrepancy for coarse pink salt (174.04 vs 174.07) is not used here. Online publication 2022; volume issue 2023. No human clinical outcome.
Related evidence
Reported values and source locations
| Reported value | Measurement basis | Conditions and size context | Original document location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85.19 ± 63.04 study-classified particles/kg of salt | Reported average ± SD across sampled salt types; not an Australian population estimate | Selected commercial salt types purchased in Australia; dissolution/peroxide treatment/microscopy and selected ATR-FTIR Observed particles 23.2 µm-3.9 mm; quantification restricted to particles >20 µm | PDF p. 6 (printed 935), first paragraph; methods pp. 3-4 |
Source provenance
Primary PDF SHA-256: 4232fea69f85fa25500c8ee9e07a8956120850a279c7b87f04779810c488aad4
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