MICROPLASTIC particles are ending up in table salt and the media report is alarming.
Halophiles, who love salts, may face double whammy of consuming up to 1253 microplastic particles and running the risk of several deadly diseases from high blood pressure to stomach cancer, says a study.
According to the study conducted by Noakhali Science and Technology University, an average person consumes 3.75 gram of salt every day and one kilogram of salt in 266 days.
So, in this time span, a person may consume from 560 to 1253 microplastic micro-granules with consumption of this essential dietary element and inevitable mineral for the human body.
The rate of consumption of microplastic particles which are smaller than 5mm in size is equally alarming among the Asian peers of Bangladesh.
The average consumption of microplastic particles is 803 in Bangladesh while it is 1690 in Sri Lanka, 1500 in China, 1200 in South Korea, 900 in Vietnam and 700 in Thailand.
In the last six decades, the world has produced 8.4 billion tonnes of plastics. Out of the whopping amount of plastic wastes, 91 per cent remained un-recycled.
In Bangladesh, 5000 plastic enterprises catered to 80 per cent of local demand worth 2.5 billion dollars apart from exporting plastic products worth one billion dollars.
Use of plastics can’t be totally effaced as it is a low-cost packaging material, handy and user-friendly.
Bangladesh can be the top plastic product exporters being the lowest plastic polluters in the world if plastic waste management excels, awareness peaks and greediness of corporate hits rock bottom.
Personal plastic footprint can be reduced through advertisements in the aggressive way political parties follow — through pasting posters, hanging banners, putting up gates in the entry points of cities, spraying graffiti on the walls round the year, including its management ideas in the textbooks.
Best Public Relation (PR) firms can be appointed to this end so that Bangladesh can book the bottom berth in the index of plastic waste mismanagement.
The authorities concerned can declare war on microplastic and impose high tax on polluters, putting labels on every plastic bag and bottle containing the time (20 to 500 years) it takes to decompose.
