New study finds microplastics in chewing gum

Chewing gum fiends might want to think twice before popping in another piece of gum.

A pilot study found that chewing gum can shed microplastics into saliva. Specifically, gum can release hundreds to thousands of microplastics per piece, which can potentially be ingested, according to the American Chemical Society.

Microplastics are tiny, micrometer-wide plastic particles, the ACS said.

Sanjay Mohanty, the project’s principal investigator and an engineering professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the study’s goal wasn’t to alarm anyone.

“Scientists don’t know if microplastics are unsafe to us or not. There are no human trials,” Mohanty said. “But we know we are exposed to plastics in everyday life, and that’s what we wanted to examine here.”

The ACS said plastic is everywhere, including in many everyday products like cutting boards, clothes and cleaning sponges. People can be exposed to microplastics through these items as well.

Scientists estimate that humans consume tens of thousands of microplastics every year through foods, drinks, plastic packaging, coatings and production or manufacturing processes.

“Animal studies and studies with human cells show that microplastics could cause harm, so while we wait for more definitive answers from the scientific community, individuals can take steps to reduce their exposure to microplastics,” the ACS said.

Chewing gum, however, hasn’t widely been studied as a potential source.

Five brands of synthetic gum and five brands of natural gum were tested in this new study, all of which are commercially available. Mohanty said the researchers wanted to reduce the human factor of varied chewing patterns and saliva, so one person chewed seven pieces from each brand.

“Our initial hypothesis was that the synthetic gums would have a lot more microplastics because the base is a type of plastic,” said Lisa Lowe, who started the project as an undergraduate intern at UCLA and is the presenter of this research. “Surprisingly, both synthetic and natural gums had similar amounts of microplastics released when we chewed them.”

An average of 100 microplastics released per gram of gum, according to Lowe, but some individual gum pieces released as many as 600 microplastics per gram. Because a piece of gum weighs between 2 and 6 grams, a large piece of gum could release up to 3,000 plastic particles.

That means the average person could be ingesting around 30,000 microplastics per year, as the average person chews between 160-180 small sticks of gum per year.

And Mohanty said if gum isn’t properly thrown away, it’s another source of plastic pollution in the environment, too.

“The plastic released into saliva is a small fraction of the plastic that’s in the gum,” Mohanty said. “So, be mindful about the environment, and don’t just throw it outside or stick it to a gum wall.”

The study is being peer-reviewed and was presented at the biannual meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego. Once the review is complete, the authors hope the report will be published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials Letters later this year, CNN reported.