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Chewing gum can shed microplastics into saliva, pilot study finds (www.acs.org)

submitted 1 week ago by tonytins@pawb.social to c/science@lemmy.world

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[-] workerONE@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

What about toothbrushes?

[-] randint@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 3 points 1 week ago

I just pulled this out from my ass, but I would guess yes, they do. But you rinse your mouth after brushing your teeth so I would guess it's not that bad? Since you're (mostly) not ingesting the microplastic particles from the toothbrush. But again I'm going off of nothing.

[-] iheartneopets@lemm.ee 13 points 1 week ago

Current advice is actually to not rinse after brushing, as you're meant to let the fluoride of the toothpaste sit against your teeth for thirty minutes.

Unfortunately, I would recommend not losing sleep over either source of microplastics (chewing gum or toothbrushes), until tires and synthetic clothing are done away with by society. Those are much MUCH bigger, inescapable sources of microplastics

[-] CitizenKong@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Isn't it mostly tires? Which is just another reason humanity has to be cured of this insane car-craziness.

[-] iheartneopets@lemm.ee 5 points 1 week ago

Tires are there biggest ones, yeah, but number two is shedding from synthetic clothing creation and laundering

[-] BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

I think micro plastics are in all the water everywhere.

[-] iheartneopets@lemm.ee 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

We're talking about their major sources, not where they're now consequently found

[-] Ledericas@lemm.ee 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

yea i heard that trick too, unfortunately it can cause perioral dermatitis in people, especially some toothpastes. because it tends to seep out of your lips and sits in the corner irritating the lips.