塑膠垃圾泛濫成災已經給環境帶來災難，也威脅著人們的健康。由于塑膠難以降解，會以微塑膠的形式長久存在于食物鏈中，最終通過飲水和食物進入到我們的身體裏。最新研究顯示，就連我們每天都要攝入的食鹽，也難逃塑膠污染，你每年從食鹽中吃進2000粒塑膠，你敢相信嗎？

　　A study published Tuesday (Oct. 16) in the journal Environmental Science and Technology found microplastics in more than 90% of the packaged food-grade salt—also known as table salt—for sale in stores.

　　美國《環境科學與技術》月刊10月16日發表的一篇研究報告發現，商店裏出售的包裝食品級鹽（即食鹽）中，有超過90%含有微塑膠。

　　【小知識】什麼是微塑膠？

　　微塑膠，是指粒徑很小的塑膠顆粒以及紡織纖維，現在在學術界對于微塑膠的尺寸還沒有普遍的共識，通常認為粒徑小于5mm的塑膠顆粒為微塑膠。聯合國海洋環境保護科學問題聯合專家組(GESAMP)稱其為“溫柔殺手”。因為，微塑膠能夠被分解成細小的顆粒和碎片，混入土壤、水源以及動植物體內。

　　The team, from South Korea’s Incheon National University and Greenpeace East Asia, sampled 39 brands of salt harvested in 21 countries and regions. Only three of the samples had no detectable microplastics.

　　韓國仁川國立大學和綠色和平東亞分部的研究團隊對21個國家和地區的39份食鹽進行了取樣分析，只有3個樣品沒有可檢測到的微塑膠。

　　Microplastics are virtually everywhere. Sea salt and lake salt are made by evaporating water and harvesting the salt that remains. Plastic waste flows from rivers into those bodies of water, so it’s no surprise that the salt contains traces of it too. Scientists have been finding microplastics in salt for years, including in salt from countries and regions in Asia, Europe, and Africa.

　　微塑膠實際上無處不在。海鹽和湖鹽都是通過將水分蒸發掉，獲得剩下的鹽分。廢塑膠從河流進入水體，因此食鹽裏也含有微量塑膠就不奇怪了。多年來，科學家已在來自亞洲、歐洲和非洲各地的食鹽中發現了微塑膠。

　　But the latest study goes a step further, finding that looking at where the salt was produced is a good indicator of how much plastic pollution is coming from that particular region.

　　但最新的研究更深入一步，發現查看食鹽的生産地就能很好地説明當地塑膠污染的嚴重程度。

　　The 39 samples came from Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chinese mainland and Taiwan, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Senegal, Thailand, the UK, the US, and Vietnam.

　　39份食鹽樣品分別來自澳大利亞、白俄羅斯、巴西、保加利亞、中國大陸和臺灣地區、克羅地亞、法國、德國、匈牙利、印度、印度尼西亞、意大利、韓國、巴基斯坦、菲律賓、塞內加爾、泰國、英國、美國和越南。

　　Of these, 28 were sea salts, nine were rock salts, and two were lake salts.

　　其中，28份樣品是海鹽，9份是岩鹽，2份是湖鹽。

　　Only three of the samples were microplastics-free: a refined sea salt from Taiwan, a refined rock salt from Chinese mainland, and an unrefined sea salt in France.

　　只有3份食鹽樣品中不含微塑膠：來自中國臺灣的精制食鹽、來自中國大陸的精制岩鹽和來自法國的未提煉的海鹽。

　　Salt made in Asia had by far the most microplastics of all the samples, which correlates with where plastic most often enters the ocean. Nine of the top 10 sea salts sampled with the highest amount of microplastics came from Asia.

　　到目前為止，所有樣品中含微塑膠最多的食鹽均出自亞洲，這與亞洲的塑膠通常流入大海有關。10種微塑膠含量最高的食鹽中有9種都來自亞洲。

　　“The results indicate that not only is Asia a hot spot of global plastic pollution, as previous studies have suggested, but also that sea salt can be a good indicator of the magnitude of [microplastics] pollution in the surrounding marine environment,” the researchers write.

　　研究人員寫道：“研究結果不僅表明，亞洲是全球塑膠污染最嚴重的危險地區——就像以前的研究所顯示的那樣，同時也表明海鹽是衡量周邊海洋環境（微塑膠）污染程度的一個很好的指針。”

　　Based on their results, the researchers estimate that the average adult ingests about 2,000 pieces of microplastic in salt per year. But, they write, that still only represents a fraction of the microplastics a person is likely to consume.

　　研究人員根據研究結果估計，一個成年人平均每年僅通過食鹽就吃進約2000粒微塑膠。不過，這可能只佔一個人微塑膠攝入量的很小一部分。

　　Previous research revealed that microplastics have also been found in tap water, mollusks, and both indoor and outdoor air. All together, those four pathways add up to an average 32,000 pieces of microplastic ingested per year per person. Inhaling microplastics in the air is by far the largest contributor—people ingest roughly 80% of the microplastics that enters their bodies through this route.

　　此前研究顯示，自來水、軟體動物和室內外空氣中都含有微塑膠。再加上食鹽，一個成年人平均每年從以上4種途徑中攝入3.2萬粒微塑膠。從空氣中吸入微塑膠目前來看佔比最大，人們攝入的微塑膠中有大約80%都是空氣吸入的。

　　Given those other sources of exposure, microplastics in table salt amounts to about 6% of a person’s total microplastics ingestion, the researchers write.

　　研究人員寫道，考慮到攝入微塑膠的其他途徑，人們從食鹽中攝入的微塑膠佔到全部攝入量的大約6%。

　　Microplastics have also been found in beer and fish.

　　此外，啤酒和魚類中也發現了微塑膠。

　　來源：石英財經網、參考消息網

　　翻譯&編輯：yaning