Microplastics are an extremely small scale, with these particles ranging from 1 nanometer to 5 millimeters. Amazingly, researchers have detected these microplastics in chewing gum. A new study, led by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), revealed an unexpected finding. In fact, chewing a single piece of gum can introduce at least 100–1000 microplastics directly into your saliva. This discovery adds another dimension to the ongoing concern about the pervasiveness of microplastics in everyday life and their potential impact on human health.
The research sheds light on how microplastics escape into the environment as larger pieces of plastic slowly degrade. With gum being a ubiquitous product consumed worldwide, the research aimed to investigate how these tiny particles enter the human body through gum chewing. The study provides an eye-popping average of 100 microplastics released per gram of gum. Some pieces are much worse, releasing up to 600 microplastics per article! The larger pieces were able to release over 3,000 plastic particles. Interestingly, this was predominantly the case in the first two minutes of chewing.
The Surprising Source of Microplastics
An average stick of gum is 2-6g, depending on the brand. The researchers concluded that chewing gum could result in a shockingly high consumption of microplastics. The result was their discovery that the typical American chomps nearly 1,500 little sticks of gum a year. This frequent habit alone may result in her ingestion of nearly 30,000 microplastics per year. The composition of gum, primarily consisting of a rubbery base, sweeteners, and flavorings, was scrutinized to understand its role in microplastic release.
Lisa Lowe, a Ph.D. student at UCLA who worked on the study, shared surprising results between the synthetic and natural gums.
“Surprisingly, both synthetic and natural gums had similar amounts of microplastics released when we chewed them,” said Lisa Lowe.
This implies that the issue may not be limited to synthetic gum bases but rather to the natural variants. At first, we expected that synthetic gums would lose more microplastics because they have a plastic-like base. Yet this assumption was contradicted by the study’s findings.
Implications for Health and Environment
Sanjay Mohanty, the study’s principal investigator and a UCLA engineering professor, tried to sum it up. He explained that the plastic that gets released into saliva is just a tiny portion of all the plastic that’s used in gum.
“The plastic released into saliva is a small fraction of the plastic that’s in the gum,” he explained, adding that improperly discarded gum creates another layer of pollution.
This highlights a dual environmental concern: not only does chewing gum contribute to microplastic ingestion, but discarded gum contributes to environmental pollution.
Though the existence of microplastics in gum has been established, what that means for your health is unclear. Mohanty rarely, if ever, does research without first considering the impact it could have.
“Our goal is not to alarm anybody,” said Sanjay Mohanty. “Scientists don’t know if microplastics are unsafe to us or not.”
The research makes a strong case for us to unearth the long-term health consequences of consuming microplastics. This can be accomplished through low-cost, basic diet changes, such as chewing sugar-free gum.
Broader Context and Future Research
Sai Rahul Ponnana, the lead author of the study from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Ohio, explained a key finding. He said the biggest surprise that jumped out in their research was microplastics.
“When we included 154 different socioeconomic and environmental features in our analysis, we didn’t expect microplastics to rank in the top 10 for predicting chronic noncommunicable disease prevalence,” said Sai Rahul Ponnana.
This highlights the importance of elucidating microplastics’ overall impacts on human health and disease incidence.
Microplastic research is still fairly new. Scientists and policymakers need to engage with each other in order to create new strategies that more effectively minimize their potential negative impacts on human health and the environment. Understanding how everyday products like chewing gum contribute to microplastic exposure is a step towards informed decision-making and potential regulation.
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