Chewing Gum Releases Thousands of Microplastics Into Our Saliva, Researchers Find

In just the last couple of years, scientists have found microplastics in disturbing places, from beneath Arctic ice to human blood, testicles, and even brains. In fact, plastic is so widespread that it has triggered a new geological epoch. Now, researchers have added chewing gum to the growing list of products that expose humans to microplastics. A team of researchers has revealed that chewing a single stick of gum can release hundreds to thousands of microplastics into our saliva—meaning it most likely gets ingested. The researchers presented the pilot study at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) on Tuesday. “Our goal is not to alarm anybody,” Sanjay Mohanty, an engineer at the University of California, Los Angeles, who participated in the research, said in an ACS statement. “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 her ... Read full article.