Yesterday afternoon (27 October), MPs Wera Hobhouse and Roz Savage joined Kids Against Plastic campaigners outside Parliament to call for urgent government action on plastic-based chewing gum.
Research shows a single piece of gum can release more than 250,000 microplastics into the body in just an hour of chewing, making it a significant public health concern.
The gathering comes as 45 cross party MPs have now signed Hobhouse’s early day motion demanding transparent labelling of plastics in chewing gum and greater accountability from its manufacturers.
Hobhouse said: “It’s really quite shocking that when people chew gum - and the majority of people are young - they’re ingesting large amounts of microplastics, which can be so harmful. We must protect anybody who chews gum. We need transparency, openness, good labelling and better regulation.”
Kids Against Plastic campaigners, including 15-year-old Inaaya Ijaz, urged Defra to act: “We’re calling on you to take strong action. Protect our health. Protect our planet. Put the wellbeing of our generation first and put an end to billions of pieces of chewy plastic.”
Founder of Kids Against Plastic, Amy Meek, added: “We’re here today to support the early day motion in Parliament to try and raise awareness of the health impact and microplastic exposure that can come from chewing gum.”
“Many people who chew gum are under 25, and the health scares around this are just not known, if they were I’m sure a lot of people would make a different choice”
Savage said: “I think there’s a lot that we can do. We could require manufacturers to label their products much more clearly, maybe with a health warning like we have on cigarettes. There could be a tax on gum that contains plastic to help councils pay for the cost of clearing gum off pavements, and I think we really need to see a ban on marketing to the under 25s, because young bodies just can’t process this.
“The younger you start chewing gum containing plastic, the more those nasty forever chemicals are going to accumulate in your body as you get older. We already have a few laws in place to protect young people from all kinds of harm, and I think we need to add gum containing plastic to that list.”
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