The mouthful of chewing gum can be a mouthful of microplastics. Small pilot research. Research published at the American Chemical Society’s Spring Conference suggests that a piece of chewing gum can introduce just as much. 3,000 microplastic particles Place them in saliva for potential ingestion.
“Our goal is not to be wary of anyone,” said Sanjay Mohanty, a research author and professor of engineering at the University of California in Los Angeles. press release. “But we know that we are exposed to plastic in our daily lives, and that’s what we want to look into.”
read more: Microplastics are everywhere. What are they doing to our health?
Some chewing gum is plastic
Most of us use products that expose us to microplastics every day. In fact, our food, drinks and our plastic packaging is thought to be possible to ingest us Tens of thousands of microplastics Every year, every piece sits about 1 micrometer to 5 millimeters. However, the effects of chewing gum on microplastic intake have not been thoroughly studied.
To bridge this gap, Mohanty and Lisa Lowe, engineering students at the University of California in Los Angeles, are looking to study the intake of microplastics from natural and synthetic gums. Natural gums are made of plant-based polymers such as sap, whereas synthetic gums are made of petroleum-based polymers and are essentially synthetic plastic rods.
“Our first hypothesis was that synthetic gums have more microplastics because the base is a type of plastic,” Lowe said according to the release. “Amazingly, both synthetic gums and natural gums released similar amounts of microplastic when we chewed them.”
Finally, Mohanty and Lowe tests separated an average of about 100 microplastic particles and about 600 microplastic particles per gram of gum. This correlates with up to 3,000 microplastics of larger gum, all of which can be ingested through saliva.
read more: Our brains absorb more microplastics than other organs
Saliva microplastic
Five brands of natural gum and five brands of synthetic gum, Mohanty and Low asked one participant to chew gum from each brand to create a consistent pattern of chewing and salivary production.
In one test, participants chewed gum from each brand for four minutes. In another case, they chewed gum for 20 minutes from each brand. In both cases, they regularly provided saliva samples, revealing the amount and rate of microplastic release over time.
The test showed that most of the microplastics were washed into saliva within 2 minutes of chewing, and 94% fell off within 8 minutes. Interestingly, chewing released these microplastics rather than the presence of saliva. This is because it was polished enough to tear large plastic particles from the larger gum.
Although it is possible to capture just 20 micrometers of measured plastic, Mohanty and Lowe’s methods missed out on smaller microplastics. In other words, there was probably more plastic particles in the saliva of participants who could not catch.
“The plastic released into saliva is a small portion of the plastic in gum,” Mohanty said, according to the release.
Is gum safe for our bodies?
Ultimately, it’s clear that chewing gum is exposing us to microplastics, but it’s not clear what that exposure is doing to us.
“Scientists don’t know if microplastics are unsafe for us,” Mohanty said, according to the release. “There are no human tests.” However, studies on animals and human cells show that microplastics can cause harm, so it makes sense to reduce exposure to them as much as possible.
To limit your intake of microplastics, it is recommended that waxes be chewed for a long period of time with one gum rather than a few gum. (Mohanty also recommends being careful where you throw chewed gums, as they can contribute to environmental plastic pollution.)
Of course, removing gum from your daily routine can also reduce exposure to microplastics. By reducing gum, the small plastic particles are filled a little and you can exchange a satisfying chew bite for your mouth.
This article does not provide medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.
read more: How Microplastics sneaks into our bodies
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Sam Walters is a journalist covering evolution for archaeology, paleontology, ecology and discovery, and has an assortment of other topics. Before joining the Discover team as an assistant editor in 2022, Sam studied journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
