Hacker News Reader

Comment by nubela | Hacker News Reader

How can I buy salt that does not have this?

Easiest way is probably to get the pink salt from the Himalayas. The health claims around it are bogus, but as it's mined from the mountains (and usually sold in a highly unrefined format) it's fairly unlikely ocean microplastics have wound up in it. It's also readily identifiable in a way white chunks of salt aren't.

> In another indicator of the geographic density of plastic pollution, microplastics levels were highest in sea salt, followed by lake salt and then rock salt.

Isn't there a slight worry that since it's not refined it might contain other harmful stuff? I admit I only read this once in passing and didn't investigate further.

Also, does the Himalayan salt contain iodine? Because otherwise you may soon get a iodine deficiency. The reason iodine is added in table salt in the first place is because most people would be deficient otherwise.

Even before iodized salt, goiters were location dependent. The modern diet likely contains enough iodine from other sources - seafood, dairy, eggs, processed foods - that non-iodized table salt isn't likely to matter much.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/cut-salt-it-wont...

True - but the modern diet probably also contains enough microplastics from other sources that avoiding them in salt isn't likely to matter much. :(

I've used Himalayan salt for decades, no iodine deficiency. Unless you only eat at home, and no processed foods, you're likely getting plenty of iodine elsewhere.

> Easiest way is probably to get the pink salt from the Himalayas.

It's from Pakistan, but I think your point stands.

Wikipedia says the Himalayas extend into Pakistan, and it's marketed as "Himalayan salt" regardless.

Kind of a pedantic comment from you. The part of Pakistan they get that salt from is in the region of the Himalayas. Himalayas spans multiple countries and is a big region. So that person is not wrong, it is from the Himalayas.

It's not mined from the mountains, but from the plains of Khewra, Jhelum District, Punjab.

The nearest outcropping of actual Himalayas is about a 3hr drive north near Islamabad.

This particular varietar of bullshit (Himalayan salt being authentic) is more persistent than most.

> The three brands that did not contain microplastics are from Taiwan (refined sea salt), China (refined rock salt), and France (unrefined sea salt produced by solar evaporation)

There might be more info in the research paper linked in the article.

That's great. Information on which brands are not contaminated is behind the ACS paywall. Good job, academia.

This is precisely why I gave up on the academic publishing model.

"One of the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings might be killing you. Find out after this commercial break..."

> unrefined sea salt produced by solar evaporation

Hmmm... that seems counterintuitive. I'd think that sea salt that's refined would contain less microplastic, not the other way around. Maybe they get their seawater from a part of the ocean that doesn't have microplastic?

Also, I'd think that Himalayan salt would contain no microplastic, but then again, it wouldn't surprise me if Himalayan salt wasn't actually from the Himalayas.

Maybe the testers happened upon some very old stock that has gone through the evaporation pits before the plastic revolution. That industry goes way back.

The process of crystallization excludes impurities. But that means they're not embedded in crystals, not that the heap of salt is free of impurities.

I too discount food labeling claims.

Unfortunately there isn't.

At least here in the UK you can get UK rock salt, which I'd expect to be free of microplastics - it's mined from under the ground where it's been sitting for aeons, so unless the processing introduces microplastics (seems unlikely) I'd expect it to be pure.

TFA indicates rock salt also contain microplastics.

If you're really paranoid, I'd suggest buying salt with sizeable crystals, and then rinse those in a saturated salt water bath. It seems to me these microplastics are not included in the salt grains, but rather dispersed among them. So they would float up.

You could also check for microplastics in the salt you usually buy. Just dissolve 100g in 10L of water, and filter that through a dark finely woven cloth.

I'd rather melt the salt to take care of any infiltrating plastics.

That's very energy intensive. I hope your source of heat is carbon neutral.

I think the plastics would burn well before you got to the melting point of salt.

In the case of sea salt, doesn’t the salt crystal form around a seed particle? The plastic particles are seeding the crystal, so do end up “inside” the grains.

Microplastics are already in the water supply. And they are microns large, so filtering it in cloth is useless.

that's why anyone should install a osmosis filter at home

The Real Salt company (Utah, USA) asserts their salt is not contaminated:

https://realsalt.com/has-real-salt-sea-salt-been-contaminate...

Real Salt is in local stores and at Amazon. Full disclosure: I do have an indirect affiliation with Real Salt.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com