Chewing Gum, VOCs at High Temperatures, and the Top Sources of Microplastic Exposure

Chewing gum is bursting with microplastics

A study that dropped last month in the Journal of Hazardous Materials found that chewing gum releases hundreds of thousands of microplastics into the mouth of the chewer.

A volunteer chewed a piece of commercially available gum for a total of one hour. Researchers analysed their saliva at three 20-minute intervals, detecting overall as many as 251,244 microplastic particles.

We looked in the last post at air fresheners and the potential risks they pose in exchange for no real benefit, and we could tell a similar story about chewing gum: we’re polluting our mouths and the world we inhabit to consume something that merely pretends to be a source of sustenance.

Some of what conventional chewing gum gives us (such as better-smelling breath) can be acquired elsewhere, and while I’m yet to see similar research on it, plant-based chewing gum does exist and is very likely less riddled with plastic than the alternative.

Higher temperatures cause greater VOC release

First: what are VOCs?

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are chemicals that easily evaporate at room temperature—hence the volatile part (the organic part refers to them being carbon-based).

They’re found in countless everyday objects, like glues, paint, cleaning products, and upholstered furniture. They’re what make perfumes and other scented products work.

We’ll dive much more deeply into what these are and how they might be affecting our health and well-being in future editions, but the upshot is that they’re really everywhere, and once you begin to notice their ubiquity as you go about your day-to-day existence, it’s difficult not to.

They’re responsible for the often-lauded ‘new car smell’, as well as the smell of anything else newly cleaned, processed, or manufactured.

The gym I’m a member of recently opened another floor fitted with brand-new equipment, and when I’m there, I can’t help but think about how it probably isn’t the best idea to fill a hot and poorly ventilated room with people breathing in and out as deeply as they can manage, surrounded in every direction by freshly unwrapped VOC-releasing flooring and workout gear.

Back to the study: I wanted to share this piece of research, in part, to continue exploring a theme touched on in the last post—that of large-scale problems exacerbating one another.

Published a few months ago, it found that building materials commonly used in our homes release significantly more VOCs when subjected to higher temperatures.

Seventy-eight percent of the materials studied emitted increased levels of VOCs in warmer environments—such as formaldehyde, caprolactam, dibutyl phthalate, and benzothiazole (all associated with health issues)—with flooring and ceiling materials being especially problematic.

Given the state of our warming world, this is especially concerning. As temperatures rise, on top of everything else that’s already on there, we’ll have to add more toxic substances swimming around in the air we breathe to our list of things to worry about.

New research on the top sources of microplastic exposure

A recently published paper looked at microplastic exposure in young adults in China by taking stool samples from participants.

The researchers found microplastics in the stools of almost everyone studied (98.7%) across three Chinese cities, with polyethylene (PE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and polystyrene (PS) being the types most commonly detected.

The point of the study was to understand how everyday choices and lifestyle factors influence microplastic exposure—and luckily for us, it yielded some easily implementable takeaways:

• Avoid heating food in plastic containers (like Tupperware products): unsurprisingly, participants who regularly ate from heated food containers had significantly higher levels of microplastics in their stools, particularly PET.

• Drink less bottled water: those who consumed bottled water were found to be much more exposed to microplastics—including PE, PVC, and PP—than those who didn’t.

• Cut back on takeaways: frequent takeaways were associated with higher levels of microplastics in stool samples. Microplastics likely seep into hot food from plastic-based or foam-based disposable containers (very much related to the first point).

An association was also observed between microplastic exposure and being around secondhand smoke, using certain personal care products, and even wearing framed glasses—but these associations didn’t hold up once more rigorous testing was applied.

Some good news here is that while perhaps inconvenient, taking actions like avoiding plastic bottles and eating less takeaway food wouldn’t merely help reduce the level of noxious substances entering our bodies; it would also benefit our health and the environment. The tradeoffs are plainly worth making.

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