STATISTICAL REPORT OF MICROPLASTICS (MPS)CONTAMINATING THE COMMERCIAL TABLE SALTS CONSUMED IN TIRANA, ALBANIA

The first polymer was synthetized in 1907 and nearly a century later the term microplastics (MPs) was used for the first time by Thompson et al, 2004, meaning plastics’ fragments with less than 5mm in dimensions. Despite the numerous advantages of polymers, which even led to metal and ceramic substitutions in various applications, a growing risk for living organisms comes from environmental pollution with MPs. Plastic objects break into micro-beads, -fragments, -fibres and -foam during their usage or the deposit period in disposal sites. The most common types of MPs are: high & low- density polyethylene, polystyrene, polyester/polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, ethylene-vinyl acetate, polyvinyl chloride and polyurethane. The effects of MPs in humans vary from toxic effects, such as oxidative stress, metabolic disorder, immune response, neurotoxicity to reproductive and developmental toxicity. These health hazards reach humans through air, drinking water and food. One everyday food component, that adds MPs to the diet, is table salt. In this study six commercial table salts’ brands consumed in Tirana, Albania, are chosen. They are selected from different countries of origin. Optical microscopy and image analysis are used to identify the shapes and sizes of MPs present in these table salts’ samples, for comparisons and statistical evaluations purposes. The table salt from Bosnia & Herzegovina resulted the least contaminated.