Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIxEae6R_7x/Chewing gum releases some 637 microplastic particles per gram of gum, and 94% of this plastic is released during the first 8 minutes of chewing.  UCLA environmental engineers report this finding at the American Chemical Society’s Spring 2025 Meeting after a small pilot study. Using infrared microscopy and smartphone-based detection, the team tested 10 commercial gum brands, five synthetic and five natural, and determined that both types, release similar quantities of microplastics. The most common type of plastic released was polyolefin, also found in food packaging and containers.The researchers estimate that the typical gum-chewing enthusiast might ingest around 30,000 microplastic particles per year.  Add that to the micro- and nano-plastics that you might swallow from bottled water and single use plastic containers.To date, there are no large-scale definitive studies of micro/nanoplastic toxicity in humans, but I do discuss a troublesome epidemiological