The pollution from microplastics affects not only the environment but also our body. In fact, with food we also ingest thousands of chemicals. To trigger the alarm this time are not the packaging but the chewing tires, never studied in depth before this important study. Let’s see what scientists on chewing gums have discovered.
The study
Every year we ingest tens of thousands of microplastics with food, in particular from foods, drinks and packaging. The so -called ‘food pollutants’ that could have harmful effects on our health: they were found in the brain, liver, arteries, kidneys and even in the placenta. Small pieces of plastic size between 1 micrometer and 5 millimeters. They were also found in chewing tires. A study by Sanjay Mohanetty of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), discovered that Chewing Gum can release hundreds or thousands of microplastics in saliva, with the risk of being ingested.
The experts managed to measure the microplasty release rate from each tire and the quantity that could be potentially ingested by those who chew the chewing gum.
The results
The study took into consideration tires made by a rubbery base, sweetener, aromas and other ingredients. Both natural ones, which use a polymer of vegetable origin such as the chicle or the sap of other trees, both products that use synthetic rubber bases obtained from polymers derived from oil. In all, ten brands of tires have been analyzed currently on the market, five synthetic and five natural. They were chewed to the same person to reduce the human factor due to the different methods of chewing and saliva. Seven pieces of Chewing Gum for each brand, for about 4 minutes, with saliva samples collected every 30 seconds.
Then the results, which highlighted an average of 100 microplastics released per gram of rubber, with peaks of up to 600 microplastics per gram. So a large piece of rubber – usually chewing gum weigh between 2 and 6 grams – could release up to 3,000 plastic particles. If an average person chews 160-180 tires per year, it could ingest around 30,000 microplastics.
With surprise, the researchers discovered that both synthetic and natural tires had similar quantities of microplastics issued with chewing. In addition, they contained the same polymers: poliolefine, polyethylene tereftolato, polycrilammidi and polystyrene. Those more abundant for both types of rubber were poliolefine, a group of plastics that includes polyethylene and polypropylene.
With food we ingest plastic and thousands of chemicals