Does the salt in your kitchen contain shards of glass? A Facebook video claims it does.
An April 9 Facebook video was filmed in a supermarket aisle in which a person reaches for Morton Salt and Walmart’s plain salt.
“This item has killed more people than COVID,” a man’s voice says. “Why do I say this? Because it is 50% sea salt, 25% sand and 25% glass,” he added.
The voice then claims that consuming the salt “cuts up your arterial and venous network and that’s how you get high blood pressure.”
The Facebook video was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
The ingredients listed in Morton iodized table salt are salt, potassium iodide (a type of salt used to add iodine to table salt), dextrose (a type of sugar added to prevent the iodine added from evaporating), and calcium silicate (a compound added to prevent salt crystals from sticking together). Morton also sells table salt that does not contain iodine, a mineral in foods such as eggs and fish. Iodine deficiency can lead to swelling of the thyroid gland.
Walmart’s Great Value plain salt contains salt and yellow prussiate of soda, another compound that prevents salt crystals from sticking together.
Glass is in neither salt’s ingredients list.
The Facebook post gave no evidence that table salt contains sand and glass; a screenshot in the video has text that matches a website promoting natural wellness — which also provides no evidence that table salt contains sand and glass.
PolitiFact contacted Morton Salt and Walmart for a statement. Neither replied.
This is not the first time this claim has circulated online. A February 2018 Reddit post asked whether a similar claim was true and linked to a YouTube video, which the site has removed for violating community standards.
Although high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, and salt consumption are linked, this is because salt contains sodium, and a high-sodium diet “can increase your blood pressure and your risk for heart disease and stroke,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. The CDC adds, “Together, heart disease and stroke kill more Americans each year than any other cause.”
Canned foods, pizza and savory snacks contain high sodium.
More than 1.2 billion people globally have hypertension, according to the World Health Organization. Eating a low-sodium diet is a key recommendation for reducing hypertension risk.
We rate the claim that Morton Salt and other plain and iodized table salts contain glass that cuts arteries and sparks high blood pressure Pants on Fire!
