Chewing Gum Releases Microplastics Into Your Mouth, Scientists Warn

 https://www.newsweek.com/microplastics-chewing-gum-mouth-saliva-pollution-health-2049922

Chewing a single piece of gum can release hundreds to thousands of pieces of microplastic into the saliva in your mouth—likely to go on to be swallowed.

This is the warning of researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) who experimented to see how many microplastics the polymer-based treats might let out.

Microplastic (smaller than 5 millimeters in size) and nanoplastic (under 0.001 millimeters) particles have become ubiquitous in the environment and can get into the very food we eat.

These particles have been found in various bodily organs—including the brain, kidney, liver, placenta and testes—with scientists estimating that humans may consume as many as tens of thousands of microplastic pieces each year.

Scientists are concerned about the impact of microplastics on health; with studies on animals and human cells suggesting that microplastic particles could be causing us harm.

"Our goal is not to alarm anybody," said paper author and engineer Professor Sanjay Mohanty. "Scientists don't know if microplastics are unsafe to us or not.

"There are no human trials. But we know we are exposed to plastics in everyday life—and that's what we wanted to examine here."