In fact, plastic is so widespread that it hastriggered a new geological epoch.
Now, researchers have added chewing gum to the growing list of products that expose humans to microplastics.
The researcherspresented the pilot studyat the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) on Tuesday.
Chewing gum releases hundreds of microplastics into your saliva. Image on the right features microplastics not associated with the study.© Left image: Freepik. Right image: Dantor (talk) 20:55, 18 November 2013 (UTC), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Scientists dont know if microplastics are unsafe to us or not.
There are no human trials.
While more research is needed, its worth noting that previous studies have alreadylinked microplastics to health complications.
Scientists have previously estimated thatpeople ingest at least 50,000 microplastics a year.
They tested 10 commercially available brands: five synthetic gums and five natural gums.
While the participant chewed each piece of gum, the researchers took saliva samples at various time intervals.
Some sticks of gum released as many as 600 microplastics per gram.
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