Gum base is made from a combination of waxes, resin, and elastomers. The elasticity and stretch that come from the gum base ...

Updated at 3:31 p.m. on April 1, 2025 At the turn of the 20th century, William Wrigley Jr. was bent on building an empire of gum, and as part of his extensive hustle, he managed to persuade the U ...

Researchers at UCLA found that chewing gum – even gum labeled "natural" – can release hundreds to thousands of microplastics per piece into saliva and potentially be ingested.

Microplastic release from gum occurs primarily within the first two minutes of chewing due to the abrasive action, not enzymatic breakdown. By eight minutes, 94% of the microplastics are released.

Q: Mint gum is the only thing that gets me through the workday. Is all that chewing bad for my health? If you’re a regular gum chewer, you’re in good company.

Extrapolating this further, a 2–6 gram piece of gum may release as many as 3,000 microplastics. Multiply that by the average amount of gum chewed annually, that you could be looking at around ...

Not to burst your perfectly blown bubble, but it turns out that chewing gum may be flooding your mouth with microplastics. As detailed in a pilot study, which is awaiting peer review, a team of ...

But chewing gum with sugar once in a while doesn’t pose major health risks, especially if you have good oral hygiene. Sugar-free gum has less than 0.5 grams of sugars per serving and uses ...

Somewhere between 9,500 and 9,900 years ago, three Scandinavian teenagers were hanging out, chewing gum after a meal. Specifically, they were chewing pitch or tar made from the bark of birch trees.

Not to burst your bubble, but your gum might be packed with plastic. A new study found that chewing a single piece releases hundreds — if not thousands — of microplastics into your saliva ...

The plastic shed by chewing gum was three times wider than a red blood cell. SmirkDingo / Alamy Stock Photo. This is important because the microplastics that are known to be capable of harming ...

The study estimated that an average person chewing 160 to 180 sticks of gum per year could ingest approximately 30,000 microplastics, significantly increasing the overall annual intake of ...