r/Health • u/Silly-avocatoe • 13d ago
article Chewing gum releases microplastics into your mouth, scientists warn
https://www.newsweek.com/microplastics-chewing-gum-mouth-saliva-pollution-health-2049922318
u/Koolklink54 13d ago
Is there anything plastic isn't in?
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u/Bacontoad 13d ago
Well, there is one thing: https://www.sciencealert.com/microplastics-seem-to-be-in-every-kind-of-animal-except-one
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u/CaliOranges510 13d ago
Even before clicking the link I knew it had to be tardigrades. Those little guys are indestructible.
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u/adumbrative 13d ago
Those little things never cease to amaze!
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u/Heretosee123 13d ago
Knew what it was as soon as I read your comment
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u/adumbrative 12d ago
We should invent a new gum made of tardigrades: completely plastic-free, and probably wouldn't even hurt them. For them it would be like a water bear back massage.
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u/Heretosee123 12d ago
I was wondering what it would be like to make a food out of enough of them but not sure we'd digest it and they'd just survive throughout our guts in huge slimy globs that to us is as bad as eating straight algae
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u/Hollowbound 12d ago
“They didn’t come away completely plastic-free, however. More than half of the waterbears were seen sporting microplastic particles on the surface of their bodies, particularly on their ‘legs’ (or to be more scientific, their locomotory appendages).”
Well at least they are not ingesting the microplastics.
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u/ThePatioMixer 12d ago
Literally everything has microplastics in it. I’ve given up caring.
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u/Koolklink54 12d ago
How long till we get someone's cause of death by micro-plastics?
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u/Effective-Produce165 12d ago
“Sniper mass shooter autopsy reveals two tablespoons microplastics in brain.”
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u/prototyperspective 12d ago
Well for example chewing gum without plastic but chicle. I still don't understand why it's not more popular and well-known. I mean until recently I had to import it (now it's in the stores) and even in this very thread about the subject there's few mentions of these.
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u/VirtualPoolBoy 13d ago
Since when is gum made of plastic?
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u/MichelleEllyn 13d ago
“Our initial hypothesis was that the synthetic gums would have a lot more microplastics because the base is a type of plastic,” said paper co-author and UCLA biological engineer Lisa Lowe in a statement.
“Surprisingly, both synthetic and natural gums had similar amounts of microplastics released when we chewed them.”
Both types of gum, the team added, also contained the same polymers—with the most abundant being polyolefins, a group of plastics that includes both polyethylene (used, for example, in plastic bags) and polypropylene (which is used in plastic packaging).”
😬
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u/theStaircaseProject 13d ago
I remember knowing (and feeling) it in the 90s.
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u/embersgrow44 12d ago
This just puts it together for me. I stopped chewing gum then because no matter what brand small pieces kept breaking off. I feel vindicated
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u/wessieclack 13d ago
I give up
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u/GetBent009 13d ago
I’m just going to start eating plastic at this point. It’s unavoidable anyway.
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u/Live_Olive_8357 12d ago
The idiots on tiktok are seasoning and eating packing peanuts.
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u/FunkyPlunkett 13d ago
Well shit that’s how I quit smoking.
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u/EntropyIsEternal 13d ago
Was there plastic in it ?
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u/Misguidedvision 12d ago
Apparently it's all gum, synthetic or natural have near the same levels of plastic, it's one of the more surprising finds in the article
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u/FunkyPlunkett 13d ago
Big league chew?
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u/EntropyIsEternal 12d ago
Interesting. Never knew about this brand.
How did it help you quit it ?
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u/DearMrsLeading 12d ago
It keeps your mouth busy. A lot of the draw of smoking is the habit of messing around with your mouth.
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u/e_man11 13d ago
Thank the petrochemical industry. Our lust for oil is literally going to kill us.
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u/_byetony_ 13d ago
It has already killed lots of us
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u/CatManDo206 12d ago
But how will the rich have butlers on their yachts?
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u/StaticShard84 12d ago
Honestly, our lust for petroleum products is so much worse IMO. Not just gasoline, but plastics are irreplaceable (as things stand.) Additionally, SO many tertiary products are made from the columnized purification products of crude oil that we have no other economically viable way to produce (or to produce at all.)
Petrochems aren’t going away anytime this century, I’m afraid.
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u/Effective-Produce165 12d ago
Global warming will create massive human death, disaster and instability anyway.
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u/StaticShard84 12d ago
Yeah, that’s how things are looking.
Idk what could feasibly save the planet except some kind of nuclear fusion breakthrough. And, chances are that it won’t happen in my lifetime as I’m in my mid-thirties.
My older years will likely be taken up my the ‘Climate Wars’ so while I am ultimately optimistic for mankind, I’m not optimistic about the rest of my life.
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u/Effective-Produce165 12d ago
It’s not just you and me feeling this way.
I was hoping genZ would be a sign of hope but they helped Trump win the presidency, and admire Elon Musk. I thought they were progressive until I learned that.
Seems to be a generation of a significant number of gullible people who have very poor critical thinking skills.
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u/GrapefruitMammoth626 12d ago
All I’m hearing about for over a year is microplastics, I hate plastic so much. It just feels like you can’t get away from it, even by being hyper conscious about your consumption behaviours. No one has time for that realistically. Seems the only way to address this at this point is to pressure government to regulate the shit out of it and make it less accessible/economic. Theres always alternatives. It’s next to impossible to make the change on your own when you are fighting against the current.
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u/SirMustache007 13d ago
I learned recently that gum had plastic in it once I saw new gum brands marketing themselves as “plastic free gum”.
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u/armitage75 12d ago
There is a question I ask with these microplastic articles and never seem to be able to get an answer…is this a “recent” phenomenon? Is there something that happened recently (say 10-20 years) with the production of “synthetic” or “natural” chewing gum that increases the amount of microplastics? Or is it something that has been there for decades?
In case it’s not clear the intent of the question is to understand how long this has been a problem. The implication being that if this has been in our chewing gum since…say the 1960s or something maybe it’s not as big a problem as everyone seems to believe it is?
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u/coronado22 12d ago
I worked for Wrigley back in 2007, briefly. They had an entire room with a bunch of proprietary equipment that was know as the “plasticizing room” that literally made microspheres of artificial sweeteners. Idk how long it has been going on in the gum industry, but this is the whole reason gum retains “flavor” of interest for more than a handful of seconds. As you chew, you crack the microspheres and more sweetener is released. When gum “looses its flavor” it has run out of microspheres to break and your body doesn’t get the same high/pleasure from the gum. Since it was an artificial sweetener, it’s was a main component of sugar free gum.
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u/armitage75 12d ago
Thanks for such a detailed answer. What I struggle to understand overall here is if this is more of a “detection” issue. Meaning has this been in our food/products the entire time we’ve been using plastics and we just didn’t have the means to detect it?
We’ve been using plastic since at least the 60s.
We all know if it bleeds it leads but I do wish these types of doom and gloom articles would give more historical context.
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u/Billitpro 13d ago
As someone who grinds and chews a truckload of gum instead of grinding all I can say is...
Oh fucking joy!!
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u/oldcreaker 13d ago
At this point I think eating or drinking pretty much anything releases microplastics into your mouth.
And then, unlike gum, you swallow.
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u/villalulaesi 12d ago
At this point, everything seems to load our bodies up with microplastics, so I’ve decided to just accept it.
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u/Unctuous_Robot 13d ago
I worked as a ride operator and screw chewing gum, it’s just a hunk of chewy plastic. It never never degrades and it’s a massive pain to clean off of seats.
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u/theStaircaseProject 13d ago
I think the idea of the article is that it not only degrades but does so while the person is chewing it. It gets tougher to break as it cures.
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u/aloverofthewild 12d ago
idk with some brands, i can shew a single piece of gum for two hours with no change
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u/theStaircaseProject 12d ago
That makes me wonder if it’s sad to confess chewing gum as a kid for what may have amounted to most of the day. I recall more than a few ending up feeling like I was chewing a latex glove.
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u/AmbivertMusic 12d ago
Important context from the article:
"Since the lining of the intestine is fairly thick and well-regulated, any particles you swallowed would likely pass straight through you with no impact.
"In short, while microplastics are something we should definitely be keeping an eye on, I don't think you have to stop chewing gum just yet—although you should certainly dispose of it appropriately in a bin when you are finished with it," he concluded.
"The authors of this small pilot study readily admit in their press release that there is no cause for alarm. Gum is safe to enjoy as it has been for more than 100 years," the National Confectioners Association (NCA) told Newsweek.
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u/Effective-Produce165 12d ago
The gum makers tell us not to worry. Nothing suspicious at all.
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u/AmbivertMusic 11d ago
The first part isn't from the companies, it's from chemist professor Oliver Jones of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia.
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u/ubik88 13d ago
Non-plastic gum in the states: https://www.simplygum.com/?srsltid=AfmBOopRDV7jlW2c4ZiqZ1YqTHHLXqJUdP-e9UkR5W0DYUdXZLqAsoEx
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u/etherdesign 12d ago
I have tried it and I have to say, it's disgusting and not a good chew, so I guess the plastic does add something.
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u/Medium-Biscotti6887 12d ago
This stuff isn't very good, unfortunately. The only decent flavor is the maple because it covers up the gross wet cardboard taste of the gum itself. Makes my mouth feel weird too.
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u/penguished 12d ago
Plastic is the next lead, unfortunately.
We really need breakthroughs in studying microbiology. A lot of what we're doing wrong just comes from ignorance.
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u/Effective-Produce165 12d ago
I’m sure the government and petroleum companies will get right on it. S/
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u/nilkski 13d ago
I do not care anymore
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u/ygduf 12d ago
Microplastics are pretty unavoidable and harmless, they won’t be absorbed. Nano plastics are more suspicious because they can be absorbed but there’s never been a conclusive test they do anything once absorbed.
I’m pretty certain at this point that breathing air puts nano plastics into your system so we’re basically fucked already. I’m more likely to die from poor dental hygiene complications than the additional amount of plastics. I’m getting from chewing gum.
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u/BoBaDeX49 12d ago
"Surprisingly, both synthetic and natural gums had similar amounts of microplastics released when we chewed them."
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u/2fluxparkour 12d ago
Is the microplastic coming from the ingredients or is it external contamination like how even rain has plastic in it?
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u/BoBaDeX49 12d ago
At this point it's probably just the action of breathing that fills us with micro plastics.
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u/RobsSister 12d ago
Welp. I’m truly fucked. I’ve been chewing gum for over 40 years. And it really helped when I quit smoking 11 years ago. So much so that I still chew it all day, every day. It’s definitely caused a few dental problems, but now it looks like I traded in one deadly habit for another. 😞
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u/azamanda1 12d ago
I’m 50 years old. You’re just NOW telling me this?!? It’s a little late. I’ve been chewing gum for 45 years at least
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u/Sixstep56 12d ago
So when is literally anyone in a leadership position going to address the microplastics situation? There was a time we didn’t use plastic so it can and should be banned
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u/Quirky-Ad-6271 12d ago
WTF is there anything I can’t do to not get micro plastics in my body somehow?
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u/Personal-Oven474 12d ago
For some reason this reminds me of the study where out of i think 100 or 1000 men, all of them had microplastics in their testicles
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u/imisspuddingpops 12d ago
It’s even been found in breast milk.
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u/Personal-Oven474 12d ago
Damn. Says something about the way foods and drinks are made in the world.
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u/aloverofthewild 12d ago
i mean, i get it. i do my best to increase my life but im not going to give up everything. i will chew gum forever
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u/efficientseed 12d ago
“Surprisingly, both synthetic and natural gums had similar amounts of microplastics released when we chewed them.”
And: “600-odd micrometer-sized pieces of plastic per piece of gum “is a very small amount indeed”, commented chemist professor Oliver Jones of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia.
He added: “Since the lining of the intestine is fairly thick and well-regulated, any particles you swallowed would likely pass straight through you with no impact.”
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u/Ancient-Ad3855 12d ago
How people are suprised baffels me, its already confirmed that literally everything has plastic in it, even humans now.
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u/oxxcccxxo 12d ago
Great first I had to give up plastic water bottles, then the plastic take out containers, then tea bags.... now gum...what's next, air?
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u/SignificantRain1542 13d ago
At this point, everyone should realize that being anti-consumption is the only way to go. And if you say life isn't worth living without your dumb cheap garbage, then you should reevaluate the purpose of your existence...but you wont. Too many take pride in being a chemical filter and pay to do so. Fucking human tank suckers.
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u/weluckyfew 12d ago
Golly, can you teach us how to be cool?!?! Please!!?!?
Plastics are in the f'ing water, in veggies and fruits, in lentils and beans, in meat. What exactly are you going to eat?
I'm whole food vegan and try to grow a fair amount of my own food, but I'll be the first to admit I'm probably getting just as many plastics as people living on fast food. The problem isn't the people you disdain, it's the system that has poisoned the entire ecosystem.
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u/EternalumEssence 12d ago
It's funny that this doesn't surprise me anymore. Could have seen it coming.
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u/IMissMyBeddddd 12d ago
Chewing gum helps me so much with teeth grinding and biting and binge eating. At this point idc how large the plastic is!
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u/Apprehensive_Cash108 8d ago
In this post, people learn that "plastic" is a chemistry term and a category of chemicals, and not some kind of poisonous chemical called Plastic.
That microplastics of some kind get released by something made from plastic is like saying lemonade is dangerous to drink because it's made of acid.
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u/Homegrownfunk 13d ago
:(