Is it possible to chew gum or eat plastic?

Is it possible to chew gum or eat plastic?
UCLA Study Gives Shocking Facts

When you chew gum, you unknowingly swallow plastic along with it. A new research by engineers at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) has found that chewing gum releases microplastic particles, which get mixed directly into our saliva.

💡 What are microplastics?

Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic that we cannot see with our eyes, but they remain in our stomachs in the form of saliva.

 

🔬 What is research called?

UCLA Professor Sanjay Mohanty and his student Lisa Lowe tested 10 different chewing gum brands, one made from petroleum-based plastic and another made from tree sap or sugar, and found that people who chewed gum released the same amount of microplastics. Research has shown that 100 microplastic particles can be removed from one gram of gum, and a maximum of 600 particles can be removed.

   

 

So you can estimate that, if you chew a 2-6 gram piece of gum every day, you can release more than 3000 plastic particles per day. If you consume 160-180 grams of plastic a year, you are ingesting approximately 30,000 microplastic particles, which can damage our cells. Research has not yet fully understood what harm it does to our health, but in some animal studies, it has been seen that it can damage cells, and research is still going on.

🧠 Scary, but there is a solution

Professor Mohanty said that “We do not want to judge you; we just want to be aware.” He says that science is still researching whether microplastics are harmful to human health or not. They also said that 94% of microplastic particles are released in the first 8 minutes of chewing gum. 

🤔 So what will you do now?

•  Reduce the habit of chewing gum a little bit every time.

•  Chewing natural gums also produces the same plastic, so don't trust   “natural” chewing gum.

•  One chews the gum hard, because in the first 8 minutes, more plastic particles are removed.

•  Always remain aware.

 

Next time you chew gum, be aware whether you are just making bubbles or are you also eating plastic along with the bubbles?

 

What do you think about this? Please share in the comments!

 

And share it with as many people as possible for awareness.