A new study has revealed that chewing gum releases hundreds of tiny plastic pieces straight into people’s mouths. The researchers also warned against the pollution created by the rubber-based sweet.
“I don’t want to alarm people,” Sanjay Mohanty, the lead researcher behind the new study which has not yet been peer-reviewed, told AFP.
The menace of microplastics have become a cause of concern among the scientific community. Researchers are finding small shards of plastic called microplastics throughout the world, from the tops of mountains to the bottom of the ocean. Microplastics are present even in the air we breathe.
Microplastics are being discovered in throughout human bodies – including inside our lungs, blood and brains – sparking fears about the potential effect this could be having on health.
Mohanty also said that there is no evidence directly showing that microplastics are harmful to human health. Lisa Lowe, a PhD student at UCLA, chewed seven pieces each of 10 brands of gum, before the researchers then ran a chemical analysis on her saliva.
According to a report by Science Alert, the researchers found that a gram (0.04 ounces) of gum released an average of 100 microplastic fragments, though some shed more than 600. The average weight of a stick of gum is around 1.5 grams.
People who chew around 180 pieces of gum a year could be ingesting roughly 30,000 microplastics, the researchers said as quoted by Science Alert.
The researchers also said that most common chewing gum sold in supermarkets is called synthetic gum, which contains petroleum-based polymers to get that chewy effect. However packaging does not list any plastics in the ingredients, simply using the words “gum-based”.
“Nobody will tell you the ingredients,” Mohanty said.
The researchers tested five brands of synthetic gum and five of natural gum, which use plant-based polymers such as tree sap.
“It was surprising that we found microplastics were abundant in both,” Lowe told AFP. Lowe also warned about the plastic pollution from chewing gum – particularly when people “spit it out onto the sidewalk”, Science Alert reported.
The study, which has been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, was presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego.