
If you’re concerned about how many microplastics you come into contact with each day, it may be time to ditch your gum habit.
As Food & Wine reports, earlier this year, researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) presented the findings of their small study (which, importantly, has not been peer-reviewed yet) at the American Chemical Society conference, which showed that chewing gum has the potential to release microplastics, which are quickly absorbed in human saliva.
To reach this conclusion, Lisa Lowe, a PhD student at UCLA, was asked to chew seven pieces of gum from 10 different brands (70 pieces total), consisting of five brands of synthetic gum and five brands of natural gum. She chewed each piece for four minutes and had a sample of her saliva taken every 30 seconds.
In the final round, she rinsed her mouth with water, which was combined into a single sample. In a second experiment, the saliva samples were collected throughout a 20-minute cycle. The team then counted the plastic particles either under a microscope or through infrared spectroscopy. According to AFP, the researchers found that a single gram (the average stick of gum is around 1.5 grams total, AFP noted) of gum released an average of 100 microplastic fragments. However, some brands shed more than 600.
“Our goal is not to alarm anybody,” Sanjay Mohanty, the project’s principal investigator and an engineering professor at UCLA, shared in a statement. “Scientists don’t know if microplastics are unsafe to us or not. There are no human trials. But we know we are exposed to plastics in everyday life, and that’s what we wanted to examine here.”
The researchers told AFP that the most common gum available falls under the synthetic category and typically contains petroleum-based polymers, similar to those found in plastic water bottles, to produce that chew. However, the ingredients are often not clearly specified, using terms like “gum-based” instead of the actual ingredient.
“Nobody will tell you the ingredients,” Mohanty added. However, as Lowe also noted to AFP, “It was surprising that we found microplastics were abundant in both.” (The authors observed that the microplastics shed from synthetic polymers in the natural gums likely originated from their packaging, according to CNN.)
The researchers noted that the majority of the microplastics were released after eight minutes. So, if you really don’t want to give up your gum habit, Lowe suggested sticking with the same piece for a longer time instead of reaching for a fresh piece.
Mohanty also noted that the “plastic released into saliva is a small fraction of the plastic that’s in the gum,” adding, “So, be mindful about the environment and don’t just throw it outside or stick it to a gum wall” to avoid contributing further to plastic pollution. Instead, dispose of it in a bin when you’re done.
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