Microplastics—tiny plastic bits that can take hundreds of years to break down—are everywhere, from tap water to tea bags, leaving traces in our blood and lungs. Now you can add your favorite chewing gum to the list, thanks to the alarming findings of a new study.
Chewing gum, whether natural or synthetic, contains plant-based or synthetic plastic polymers to enhance texture and flavor retention, making it a source of microplastics, explained the pilot study, which was presented at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego. And those microplastics can be ingested through saliva—with 94% released within the first eight minutes of chewing, they found.
