Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Marine Pollution Bulletin journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpolbul Baseline Microplastic presence in commercial marine sea salts: A baseline study along Tuticorin Coastal salt pan stations, Gulf of Mannar, South India S. Selvam a , A. Manisha a,b , S. Venkatramanan c,d,∗ , S.Y. Chung e , C.R. Paramasivam f , C. Singaraja g a Department of Geology, V.O. Chidambaram College, Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, India b Affiliated to Manonmaniam Sundaranar University (Registration No: 18212232062029), Abishekapatti, Tirunelveli-12, Tamil Nadu, India c Department for Management of Science and Technology Development, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam d Faculty of Applied Sciences, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam e Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Pukyong National University, Nam-gu, Busan, South Korea f Department of Remote Sensing, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India g Department of Geology, Presidency College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India ARTICLEINFO Keywords: Microplastic Sea salts μ-FT-IR Tuticorin salt pans Gulf of mannar India ABSTRACT The present baseline research infers that the salts present in the sea may contain microplastics (MPs), as the seawater is contaminated due to a number of anthropogenic activities. Herein, 25 types of sea salt samples were collected from salt pans located in the Tuticorin coastal region. The MPs present in the samples were separated and identifed by various methods such as handpicking, visual classifcation, and micro-Fourier transform in- frared spectroscopy (μ-FT-IR) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The MPs that measured less than 100 μm formed the major part of the salts, accounting to 60% of the MPs among the total pollutants. The MPs that were found in abundance in the sea salts were polypropylene, followed by polyethylene, nylon, and cellulose. This study was conducted in salt pan areas and demarcated the percentage of MPs present in sea salts. Table salt, which is a prime edible commodity, was found to be contaminated with MPs through polluted seawater, which poses a threat to public health. Since the past two decades, humans have been disposing plastic waste in seas and rivers, consequently causing coastline, seabed, and surface water pollution. According to experts’ speculation, micro- plastics (MPs) are inevitably present everywhere in the environment and enter into the food chain through the salt that is used in our diet. The frst peer-reviewed article on MP pollution in the Earth was pub- lished more than 47 years ago (Buchanan, 1971; Ainley et al., 1990). MPs are plastic pieces or fragments of size less than 5 mm that have been originated not only in oceanic environments but also in freshwater sediments. The common manufacturing process of sea salt is conducted in evaporation ponds, wherein saltwater is strenuously dried by ex- posure to wind and sunlight. The salt crystallizes from the concentrated thick brine; subsequently, these crystallized salts are further set in a settling pond settle through the accumulation under the control method. Before packing the salt in containers of various sizes for dif- ferent uses and applications, properties enhanced and chemical sub- stances involved for the separation of salts. Rock salt is the product of production, and it should further be refned on the basis of its purpose of use. (Aho et al., 1980; Soylak and Yilmaz, 2006). The World Health Organization (WHO, 2012) have recommended salt intake of 6 grams per day for adults. However, the daily salt intake is 8–11 grams per day in Europe and 9 grams per day in most countries worldwide (Ng and Obbard, 2006; Fendall et al., 2009; Mozafarian et al.,. 2014; Zhao et al., 2014; Bouwmeester et al., 2015; Koelmans et al., 2015; Arunkumar et al., 2016; Veerasingam et al., 2016), but salt consump- tion in Turkey is 14.5–18.5 grams per day, which is appreciably higher than the worldwide and Europe averages (Erdem et al., 2010; Erkoyun et al., 2016). Table salt contains an abundance of contaminants, which is augmented by this top abundance of natural substances. A number of studies conducted worldwide have reported the abuse of MPs in Turkish seas (Aytan et al., 2016; Gundogdu and Cevik, 2017). Aytan et al. (2016) reported that the boilerplate MP content in November was 1.4 ± 1.2 × 10 3 particles/m −3 and that in February was 0.7 ± 0.5 × 10 3 particles/m −3 in the Black Sea coast of Turkey. Yang et al. (2015) observed that the amount of MPs found was 7–681 items/ kg in sediments due to the leaching of salts from Chinese bazaar. Table 1 presents the details of polymer types in the MPs found in sea salts worldwide. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110675 Received 15 June 2019; Received in revised form 9 October 2019; Accepted 17 October 2019 ∗ Corresponding author. Department for Management of Science and Technology Development, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. E-mail address: venkatramanan@tdtu.edu.vn (S. Venkatramanan). Marine Pollution Bulletin 150 (2020) 110675 0025-326X/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T