Recently, CNN reported on the 25th that a study conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles showed that a piece of chewing gum can release hundreds or thousands of microplastics into saliva after chewing. This discovery provides a new direction for the study of the sources of microplastic ingestion and has attracted widespread attention.

Microplastics refer to polymer fragments and particles with a diameter between 1 micron and 5 millimeters. Previous studies have confirmed that microplastics can enter multiple parts of the human body and the bloodstream through ingestion and inhalation. The aim of this study is to explore other potential sources of microplastic ingestion and determine their concentrations.

The research team selected 10 common types of chewing gum as samples, half of which were synthetic chewing gum and the other half were made from natural ingredients. During the experiment, a participant chewed gum for 4 minutes, and the researchers collected their saliva every 30 seconds using centrifuge tubes. Afterwards, participants need to rinse their mouths with purified water 3 to 5 times. The researchers mix the saliva samples after rinsing with the chewed samples to ensure that all microplastics in the mouth can be collected. In addition, some chewing gum was chewed for 20 minutes to study the relationship between the amount of microplastics and chewing time.

The experimental results show that on average, about 100 microplastics are released per gram of chewing gum, with some chewing gum releasing up to 637 microplastics. Moreover, 94% of microplastics are released within the first 8 minutes of chewing. Surprisingly, there was no significant difference in the amount of microplastics released when chewing natural gum and synthetic gum.

It is understood that this study is undergoing peer review and will be submitted to the American Chemical Society (ACS) Spring Meeting scheduled for March 23-27. At present, the specific impact of microplastics on human health is not fully understood, but with the continuous deepening of research, the situation of chewing gum as a new source of microplastic intake may provide important basis for subsequent health risk assessment and related policy formulation.