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Proliferation of microplastics in commercial sea salts from the world

longest sea beach of Bangladesh

Fahmida Parvin , Jayasree Nath , Tamanna Hannan ,

Shafi M Tareq

PII: S2666-7657(22)00009-6
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envadv.2022.100173
Reference: ENVADV 100173

To appear in: Environmental Advances

Received date: 25 November 2021

Revised date: 22 December 2021
Accepted date: 13 January 2022

Please cite this article as: Fahmida Parvin , Jayasree Nath , Tamanna Hannan , Shafi M Tareq , Pro-
liferation of microplastics in commercial sea salts from the world longest sea beach of Bangladesh,
Environmental Advances (2022), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envadv.2022.100173

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 Research highlights
 Average value of microplastics (MPs) in the sea salts of Bangladesh is 2676 MPs/kg
 MPs in the salt of Bangladesh is higher compare to global studies except Croatia and
Indonesia
 High MPs occurred mainly for the particles with a diameter <0.5 mm
 MPs were composed of Nylon, HDPE, PET, EVA and PS polymers
 Bangladeshi people may expose to 13088 MPs/year through consuming salt.
 Proliferation of microplastics in commercial sea salts from the world longest sea beach of

Bangladesh

Fahmida Parvin1, Jayasree Nath1, Tamanna Hannan1, Shafi M Tareq*1

Hydrobiogeochemistry and pollution control laboratory, Department of Environmental Sciences,

Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka-1342, Bangladesh

Corresponding author: Shafi M Tareq, PhD, Email: smtareq@juniv.edu, ORCID: 0000-0002-

6417-3846

Abstract:

Microplastics (MPs) are formed from the breakdown of larger plastics, as well as from personal

care products. Despite of having high plastic pollution on the coast of the Bay of Bengal, yet no

study has been conducted on the MPs contamination in commercial sea salts from Bangladesh. It

is decisive to assess at which rate humans are exposed to MPs through sea salt consumption. For

this purpose, we have collected 10 well-known brand packet salts and 3 poorly refined non-brand

open salts from the local market of Bangladesh and determined their MPs content with

microscopic and flourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic examination. The average

value of MPs in the sea salts from Bangladesh (average 2676 MPs/kg) is higher compared to the

studies of sea salt from different countries of the world except for Croatia and Indonesia. The

high MPs numbers have been occurred mainly for the particles with a diameter <0.5 mm. Most

of the MPs are fibre and fragments in shape. The polymer types identified using FTIR in the sea

salt samples are polystyrene (PS), ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), high-density polyethylene

(HDPE), nylon (polyamide 6), polyethylene terephthalate (PET). SEM images of the MPs show

further weathering of those plastic particles which might be difficult to remove from salt

during purification process. Based on the salt consumption rate, in Bangladesh, people can
expose to MPs by consuming salt at a rate of 13088 MPs/year, which is alarming and might be a

potential threat to public health.

Keyword: Bay of Bengal, sea salt, microplastics, global, polymer, weathering.

1. Introduction:

The pervasiveness and proliferation of plastic waste are the most visible changes among

different dramatic changes on the surface of the earth in the last half-century (Barnes et al.,

2009). Global plastics production reached almost 360 million tons in 2018 (Plastics Europe,

2019). Within plastic waste, microplastics (MPs) that are smaller than 5 mm in size are

particularly important because they are smaller in size, persist in the environment for a long time

and can cause adverse effects when entering into the cells of animals (Barboza et al., 2018; Cole

et al., 2014). Microplastics are introduced into the environment in two ways. One results from

the direct input already in the form of micro- and nano-sized particles that are known as primary

microplastics and which are widely used in industrial processes and the manufacture of a wide

diversity of everyday use products (Napper et al., 2015). MPs are also produced from the

breakdown of larger plastic pieces (through biological, photo-, and/or mechanical degradation) in

the environment that is known as secondary microplastics (Andrady, 2011).

Many studies in the field of MPs contamination have been accomplished. It includes from

the global distribution of microplastics in salt (Gündoğdu, 2018; Kim et al., 2018; H. Lee et al.,

2019); fish (Abbasi et al., 2018; Jabeen et al., 2017), water (Sruthy& Ramasamy, 2017), sources

of microplastic (Andrady, 2011). MPs are detrimental to the marine environment as they can

enter the food chain by biomagnification and bioaccumulation in aquatic species (Shahul Hamid

et al., 2018) as well as predicted to pose adverse impact eventually on humans (Revel et al.,

2018). However, assessing the MPs abundance in seawater is difficult. For this reason, numerous
studies have concentrated on monitoring sea salt as a medium of MPs pollution (Song et al.,

2014). Monitoring of MPs in sea salt might better reflect the characteristics of the MP pollution

present in the seawater as it is directly produced from bulk seawater (Kim et al., 2018).

Typically, salt is produced through a crystallization process from the evaporation of seawater.

On evaporation, water leaves behind the salt to crystallize. In this process, there are potential

concerns about the transfer of the contaminants present in the seawater into the salt. Most

humans consume food products containing considerable amount of salts throughout their lives.

Hence, salt consumption represents a long-term exposure route of MPs to the human body

system.

Cox's Bazar beach, the world's longest natural sandy beach (125 km) along the Bay of

Bengal coast, Bangladesh is an attractive place for tourists for having long sea beach and tertiary

hills together. Around two million local as well as foreigner tourists come to visit this beach in

the tourist season (November–March). Along with those tourists activity, beachside hotels and

restaurants generate a large number of plastic wastes which are often disposed into the beach.

The abundance of MPs in the coastal and beach sediments at Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh has been

found recently (Rahman et al., 2020; Tajwar et al., 2021). Conversely, MPs abundance is also

been found in the gut of brown shrimp (3.40 items/g) and tiger shrimp (3.87 items/g) inhabiting

in the shallow and offshore waters of the Northern Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh (Hossain et al.,

2020). The high occurrence of MPs in beach sand and marine species of the Bay of Bengal

indicates the proliferation of microplastic in sea water of that ocean, which ultimately may

accumulate in the sea salt too. In the recent past, the MPs in different salt brands from the

different regions have been studied by many researchers (Gündoğdu, 2018; Iñiguez et al., 2017;

Kim et al., 2018; H. Lee et al., 2019; Sathish et al., 2020; Selvam et al., 2020). However, despite
having a huge plastic pollution problem in the coastal areas of Bangladesh, till now no study has

been done on MPs pollution of the sea salts produced from the seawater of the Bay of Bengal.

With this background, this study aimed to identify and characterize microplastic particles

present in the commercial sea salt of Bangladesh. Another aim of this study is to investigate the

weathering of those MPs using polymeric and microscopic analysis. This study also aimed to

compare the MPs contamination level in salts of Bangladesh with the other countries of the

world. This study offers an intuition into the abundance of MPs in commercial food grade salts

and suggests that current MP contamination represents an exposure risk via the food chain.

2. Materials and methods:

Collection of salt samples

Thirteen commercial sea salts were collected from different supermarkets and local

markets of Bangladesh in September 2021 among which 10 (S1-10) were well known branded

packet salts of Bangladesh and 3 were poorly refined open salts (S11-13). The commercial salts

of the supermarkets represented the most popular salt consuming brands of Bangladesh. The

local salts are used by indigenous/rural people for various purposes in addition to their

consumption and other purposes like feeding their domestic animals. All of those sea salts are

produced from the sea water of the Bay of Bengal in 60,796 acres of land in various locations of

Cox's Bazar.

Sample preparation and isolation of microplastics

We conducted all the laboratory work at the department of environmental sciences,

Jahangirnagar University during September and October, 2021. The samples were prepared

following the method described elsewhere (Lee et al., 2019; Yang et al., 2015) with a little

modification. Approximately, 100 g of each salt sample was mixed with 100 ml of 30 % H2O2
mixed water so that the organic matter could be digested (Yang et al., 2015). The beakers were

covered and placed in an oscillation incubator for 24h at 65֯ C with 80 rpm (Yang et al., 2015).

After that, approximately 800 mL of Milli-Q water was added to the mixture which was stirred

vigorously with a glass rod for ideal dissolving. The supernatants of the salt solution were

immediately transferred to the 0.45μm Whatman Glass Microfiber filter paper after vacuuming

using a vacuum pump (Model no. VE115). Then filter paper was placed into a petri dish with a

cover and dried at room temperature. Three replicates of each sample were prepared to analyze

(Yang et al., 2015). And one blank extraction group without salt was tested at the same time to

correct the possible procedural contamination.

Observation and identification of microplastic:

The filters were observed by using Leica® EZ4 HD Stereo microscope with a Built-in

Digital Camera (range of magnification 8x-35x). The microplastics were visually determined

based on the homogenous color, brightness, absence of cellular structure (Sathish et al., 2020).

We counted the number of MPs which can be visibly detected for each filter paper. And those

MPs are categorized as either fiber, fragment, foams, or filaments and classified according to

colors (S. Hossain et al., 2020; Jabeen et al., 2017; Karami et al., 2017; Tanaka & Takada, 2016).

The length/width of each MP was measured to the nearest millimeter scales (Hossain et al.,

2020; Jabeen et al., 2017; Phillips and Bonner, 2015).

Quality Control:

In order to avoid background contamination, precaution was taken during each step of the

analysis. All glasswares were rinsed three times with Milli-Q water before usage prior to reduce

cross-contamination risks, and the samples were covered with a lid (Sathish et al., 2020). The

lab windows were remaining closed throughout the experiment to avoid the air contamination.
Moreover, to assess any further air contamination blank experiments were also performed

following the same procedure without a sample. Then, the value was subtracted from the value

of the salt samples to remove the error due to air contamination.

FTIR Analysis:

A representative number of MPs from each morphotype were randomly selected and

analyzed with a Fourier Transformed Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy (IR Prestidge-21) to identify

the plastic polymer types (Parvin et al., 2021). The measurement has been done in transmission

mood in a wavenumber range of 400–4000 cm−1 (Jabeen et al., 2017). A SpectraBase™

database, an accessible online spectral repository from John Wiley & Sons, Inc has been used to

identify the absorbtion bands of each polymer. Only relying on database of automated libraries

may lead to false identification. Hence, it has also been compared to absorption bands of each

plastic polymers reported in the existing literature (Jung et al., 2018; Noda et al., 2007).

Visual identification using SEM-EADX:

The surface morphology and weathering of selected MPs were investigated and

photographed through a high vacuum scanning electron microscope (SEM), model no: (EVO18,

Carl Zeiss AG, UK) at 2.5× and 5 X magnification. By scanning the surface with a focused

electron beam, SEM generates high-resolution image of a sample. The electrons in the beam

interact with the sample, producing many signals to deliver information about the surface

topography, morphology, and weathering (Akhtar et al., 2018; Parvin et al., 2021). An energy-

dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDAX Oxford Instrument) was also used to reveal the elements

adhering to the MPs surface.

3. Results and discussion:

Abundances and characteristics of MPs in salt:

 MPs concentration in the commercial sea salt of Bangladesh ranges from 390 to 7400

MPs/kg of salt with an average of 2676 MPs/kg+- mean values (Fig. 1). High MPs number has

been found in both refined (well packed) and poorly refined salts. It might be due to high plastic

pollution of coastal areas and salt production sites. The seashore of the Bay of Bengal is highly

contaminated with plastic waste because of the exploitation by tourists. Recently, a very high

concentration of MPs has been found in intertidal sediments from the natural beach (Hossain et

al., 2021) and in the coastal sediments (Rahman et al., 2020; Tajwar et al., 2021) of Cox's Bazar.

This indicates the proliferation of MPs in seawater of the Bay of Bengal which ultimately

accumulates in the salts. However, MPs contamination of the salt products can also occur during

the processing and packaging stages (Lee et al., 2019).

Identified MPs were classified into five classes based on size and the size of MPs in salt

ranged from 0.1 mm to 5 mm. Among all MPs particles, 49% of particles were in the size of 0.1-

0.5 mm range (Fig. 2a), indicating the high MPs numbers have occurred mainly for the particles

with a diameter < 0.5 mm. With regards to the particle morphology, the predominant type was

fiber (59%) followed by fragment (35%) (Fig. 2b). This is consistent with the other studies of

MP in salt around the world (Iñiguez et al., 2017; Karami et al., 2017; Kim et al., 2018; Sathish

et al., 2020; Seth & Shriwastav, 2018). Very few numbers of sphere beads and pellets were

found in the salt samples from Bangladesh. Figure 3 illustrates the microscopic images of some

of the isolated MPs particles from sea salts. Among all MPs found in the salt samples,

white/transparent and blue colors MPs were being the major fraction (Fig. 2c). The

fragmentation, as well as discoloration of ocean plastics may occur due to longer exposure

time to sunlight in nature (Martí et al., 2020). In addition, tourist discarded many plastic

glasses, bottles, plates after use, which are mainly white/transparent. As for the blue color
MPs, most of the finishing net used in Bangladesh is made of nylon and blue in color. Hence,

the lost/abandoned fishing nets are might be a source of blue color MPs in salts.

Chemical composition of microplastics:

FTIR spectroscopy has been used to assess the polymer types of the MPs found in the sea

salt samples. The polymer types of a representative number of samples (30) were identified using

FTIR analysis. From the 30 MPs particles, 26 were found as plastic polymer in FTIR analysis,

while 4 remained unidentified. The polymer types validated using FTIR are polystyrene (PS),

ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), nylon (polyamide 6),

polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The composition is as follows: Nylon (12), HDPE (7

particles), PET (3 particles), and EVA (4 particles), PS (1 particle). FTIR spectra of these five

representative MPs particles are shown in Fig. 4.

The FTIR spectra in Fig. 4a matches with the FTIR of PET described by other

researchers (Jung et al., 2018; Noda et al., 2007). Characteristic peaks for PET are at 720 cm-1

assigned to the Aromatic CH out of plane bend; C-O stretching at 1029 and 1210 cm-1, and at

1713 cm−1 for C=O stretching. Fig. 4b represents the FTIR spectrum of the corresponding

sample showing absorption bands of Nylon (Jung et al., 2018; Noda et al., 2007). The spectrum

of figure 4b shows the following peaks: NH bend and C-N stretching at 1538 cm−1 ; C=O

stretching at 1654 cm−1; CH stretching at 2854 and 2926 cm−1, and N-H stretching 3376 cm−1 in

comparison to the reference spectrum (Jung et al., 2018). The FTIR spectra of HDPE (Fig. 4c)

matches with the FTIR of HDPE described by other researchers (Jung et al., 2018; Noda et al.,

2007; Parvin et al., 2021). Characteristic peaks for HDPE are at 717 cm-1 assigned to CH2 rock;

CH2 bending at 1463cm-1; and at 2845 and 2908 cm−1 for C-H stretching (Jung et al., 2018; Noda

et al., 2007; Parvin et al., 2021). The spectrum of figure 4d well matches with the FTIR spectrum
of EVA (Jung et al., 2018; Noda et al., 2007; Parvin et al., 2021). The representative peaks are at

720 cm-1 for CH2 rock, C-O stretch at 1029 and 1210 cm-1, C=O stretch at 1733 cm-1, C-H at

2845, 2908 matches with the peak of EVA. The absorption peaks at figure 4e well correspond to

the FTIR spectrum of PS. The matches peaks are: Aromatic CH out-of plane bending at 704 cm-
1
, Aromatic CH bending at 1029 cm-1, aromatic ring stretch at 1613 cm-1, C-H stretching at 2847

cm-1 and 3024 cm-1 for aromatic C-H stretching (Jung et al., 2018; Noda et al., 2007). Some

characteristic peaks of those plastic polymers were absent in the FTIR spectrum, while some

other peaks are present (Fig. 4). The probable reason is during aging, plastic debris can become

weathered, through physical and chemical processes as well as through photo-degradation

(Sathish et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2017). The natural weathering process might be modified MPs

by adding and/or removing different functional groups, for example, adding hydroxyl group by

slow hydrolysis process that might masking some characteristics peaks of secondary MPs

(Sathish et al., 2020).

In most of the studies, polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) are found to be the

most common polymers in MPs in coastal environments (Kim et al., 2018; H. Lee et al., 2019;

Sathish et al., 2020; Selvam et al., 2020). However, we found that nylon, HDPE, and PET was

the most common polymer in sea salts from Bangladesh. Since, nylon is a common raw material

of ropes, fishing nets, and fish baskets/bags used in the sea, this polymer can be abundantly

found in seawater and finally in sea salts. Moreover, Hossain et al., (2019) found nylon as a

predominant MPs polymer in the gut of Penaeid shrimp collected from the Northern Bay of

Bengal. As for PET and HDPE, because of their high density, they may likely settle in the raw

salts during the drying and crystallization processes of sea salt production. PET plastics are used

to make several domestic products in Bangladesh, such as beverage bottles, medicine pots,
clothing and carpet fiber etc. HDPE is used in making various types of daily products such as

containers for oil, milk, conditioners, shampoos, detergent, and soap, etc. (Hossain et al., 2020).

As we have not characterized all MPs particles found in sea salt (due to the high number of

samples), there is a possibility of the presence of other MPs polymers, i.e. PP and PE.

Surface morphology:

SEM-EADX is a beneficial instrument for getting information of morphology,

weathering, and origin of the examined samples and provides useful data about the presence of

inorganic elements on the surface of MP particles. Figure 5 represents the SEM images of two

MPs a) fiber and c) fragment. SEM images of the MPs extracted from salt produced in

Bangladesh revealed numerous cracks, pit and particles adhering to the surface. Several flakes

detached on the surface of the MPs, indicating these MPs will undergo more weathering and size

will be very much small, which is difficult to identify and to remove from salt by refining.

Figure 5b and d, shows the presence of some iornganic elements (i.e., Mg, Al, Si, Cl, K and Fe)

on the surface of MPs. The presence of those elements adhering on the surface of MPs is

consistent with the environmental exposure to which seawater is subject during the

crystallization process. These results demonstrate the relationship between the degree of plastic

aging and sorption capacity to inorganic elements and metals. Presence of different heavy metal

(Fe, Ni and As) in MPs extracted from sea salt produced in Tuticorin, India (Sathish et al., 2020)

has been found which was attributed to the effluents of nearby industries and the domestic

dumps. However, no metal on the surface of MPs has been found in this study.

Comparison with global distribution of MPs in sea salt

We review recent publications of MPs occurrence in sea salt using standard search

techniques such as google scholar, web of sciences and Scopus; and synthesizes global
distribution of MPs in sea salts (Fig.6) based on using the latest literatures (Gündoğdu, 2018;

Iñiguez et al., 2017; Karami et al., 2017; Kim et al., 2018; Kosuth et al., 2018; H. Lee et al.,

2019; H. J. Lee et al., 2021; Renzi et al., 2019; Renzi & Blašković, 2018; Sathish et al., 2020;

Selvam et al., 2020; Seth & Shriwastav, 2018; Yang et al., 2015). The global distribution map of

MPs in sea salt showed high regional variability depends on local environmental conditions and

plastic pollution in the coastal areas. The abundance of MPs in the sea salts from Bangladesh

(average 2676 MPs/kg) is higher compared to the studies of sea salt from different countries of

the world except for Croatia and Indonesia.

The contamination of MPs in salt is highest (Fig. 6) in the salts produced in Croatia

(13500-19800 MPs/kg) (Renzi & Blašković, 2018) and in Indonesia (12326-14932 MPs/kg)

(Kim et al., 2018). The tremendously high concentration of MPs in sea salt from these two

countries are due to pollution of marine water and production sites, as the coastal areas are

highly overexploited by human settlements and human activities (Kim et al., 2018; Renzi &

Blašković, 2018). In Croatia, the coastline is very long (8000 km) and salt flats are not far away

from urban settlements and river inputs. In addition, truisms activities in sea beach might be

responsible for high plastic pollution in the coastal areas of Bangladesh, Croatia and Indonesia.

Health implications:

Humans consume food containing a certain concentration of salt throughout their life.

Hence, the total amount of MP intake by humans through salts is expected to increase with

time. An average Bangladeshi adult consumes 13.4 g of salt/day (Zaman et al., 2017), which is

more than twice the limit of 5 g per day recommended by WHO (WHO, 2016). By considering

the average number of MPs (2676 particles/kg) found in sea salt from Bangladesh (Fig 1) and

salt consumption rate per day, human exposure to MPs through salt is estimated to be an average
13088 MPs/year. To the best of our knowledge, limited research has yet been performed to

directly study the effects of MPs on the human being. The researcher provides several theories

about how plastic fragments might be harmful to humans by investigating the effect of MPs on

animals, such as mice or rats (Deng et al., 2017). Based on those studies, MPs exposure may

cause toxicity through neurotoxicity and inflammatory lesions of the gut. This chronic

inflammation and irritation due to MPs intake might promote cancer due to DNA damage (Deng

et al., 2017; Lim, 2021; Prata, 2018; A. Rahman et al., 2021). Moreover, microplastics have been

found to release contaminants that are adsorbed onto their surface (Lim, 2021). Further, entering

the human body system, ingested MPs can stay for a long time and microbes can colonize on the

surface of MPs. In this way, the ingested MPs in the gut can serve as a vector of potentially

harmful bacteria (Smith et al., 2018).

Furthermore, It’s likely that ingesting MPs could further expose a human being to

chemicals (phthalates, or phthalate esters, Bisphenol A) found in some plastics (Ritter, 2011;

Warner & Flaws, 2018) that are known to be harmful. These chemicals may cause harm to

human health by altering endocrine function (Meeker et al., 2009) and increasing the risk of

breast cancer (Hsieh et al., 2012).

4. Conclusions:

Marine plastic pollution has become a concern around the globe. MPs are one of the

components of that marine debris, which has been found in sea salt samples from different

countries, demonstrating that sea products are irremediably contaminated by MPs. The results of

this present study suggest that Bangladeshi sea salts are highly contaminated with MPs (390 to

7400 MPs/kg). This MPs contamination was found to be independent of the salt refining and

packaging. Particles ranging from different shapes and sizes belong to a variety of polymer
types. Among those polymers identified by FTIR, nylon, HDPE and PET were being the major

fraction. SEM images shows several cracks and flakes detached on the surface of the MPs,

indicating these MPs will undergo more weathering and size will be very much small, which is

difficult to identify and to remove from salt by refining. The extensive consumption of these

Bangladeshi sea salts may expose a significant number of populations to the associated health

effects due to MPs ingestion. Bangladeshi people’s exposure to MPs through salt is estimated to

be an average 13088 MPs/year. Since all these amounts are depend on the amount of salt

consumed, it is obvious that if salt consumption is reduced and filtration during manufacturing is

improved to remove MPs, these amounts would decrease.

Acknowledgement: We thank Wazed Miah Science Research Center, Jahangirnagar University

for instrumental supports.

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Figures

Figure 1: Abundance of MPs in different commercial sea salts produced in Bangladesh.

Figure 2: Composition of microplastic found in commercial sea salts of Bangladesh. a) Size b)

Morphotype.
Figure 3: Microscopic images showing different morphotypes and color of microplastics

obtained from sea salts produced in Bangladesh.

Figure 4: FTIR spectra of the representative microplastic found in different commercial sea salt

from Bangladesh.
Figure 5: SEM/EDS images of MPs extracted from sea salt.
Figure 6: MPs abundance in commercial sea salt produced in different countries of the world

(Gündoğdu, 2018; Iñiguez et al., 2017; Karami et al., 2017; Kim et al., 2018; Kosuth et al., 2018;

Lee et al., 2019, 2021; Renzi et al., 2019; Renzi and Blašković, 2018; Sathish et al., 2020;

Selvam et al., 2020; Seth and Shriwastav, 2018; Yang et al., 2015) and its comparison with our

current study (marked by the square shape box).