Harry Cohen was at it again on 12th January 2004 asking what changes to policy on discarded chewing gum DEFRA has made and plans to make [ Hansard 146361] to be told, "We are working closely with all interested parties through an action group which includes representatives of Defra, the Department for Education and Skills, ENCAMS (formerly the Tidy Britain Group), chewing gum manufacturers, the Local Government Association and the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management, to progress effective and sustainable ways of tackling it."

Pete Wishart, (SNP) MP for North Tayside proposed last Wednesday (19/2/04) in a Commons motion a 2p per pack levy to be given to councils to help pay the clean up costs of the "disgusting" stuff and wants the producers to make a fully bio-degradable and non-adhesive product. In Ireland Clr Seamus Fitzpatrick of Belturbet suggests a 6 cent per pack levy and quotes the success of the national tax on plastic bags, reducing their usage and resultant litter.

Anxious for revenue, always ready for a new tax or two, this one is justified by the new and current mantra of our environmentally friendly legislators, on the principle, "the polluter pays".

Older than football coaches
The masticatory quality of vegetable gums and resins can be traced to Nilotic peoples. The ancient Greeks, used the pale yellow mastic gum from the mastic tree (a relative of the cashew nut Pistachia lentiscus) and the Mayan civilisations used chicle, derived from the sapodilla tree Manilkara zapota. Some 5,000 "chicleros", cut zig-zag gashes in the bark, collect the latex like product, then boil it up and mould the reduced gummy result into blocks. Yield is variable and the trees are not cultivated, so wild trees are harvested in the the rain forests during the rainy season from September to January when the sap flows freely.

This chicle found it's way to the US with Ex-Mexican President, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, victor of the Alamo but living in the exile in 1869 in New Jersey. Thomas Adams, a Long Island photographer and chemical experimenter tried to vulcanise it as a rubber substitute but ended up in 1871 with a US patent for a gum producing machine, (a little after the Swiss, Sprungli invented the chocolate block making machine) to which he added liquorice for flavouring and called it "Black Jack".

In Chicago, William Wrigley was not doing well selling soap, so he offered free baking powder, that was more popular than his soap, so he switched to selling baking powder and offered the new fangled chewing gum for free…..

Wrigley's the Big Chews
Still controlled by the fifth generation of the family, the Wrigley company, centred on their iconic building at the junction of the Chicago River and Michigan Avenue, (near where the Stones first met Muddy Waters and cut their first tracks at Chess Studios), bestride the world. Except in the City / State of Singapore where mere possession can lead to one year in the slammer and a fine of over $6,000. It is estimated the average American consumes 300 sticks a year, and Wrigleys supply 90% of the EU and UK market which has grown by over 33% since 1998 (Source DEFRA). It was the first product in the early sixties to bear a UPC bar code.

The product has however undergone a major and little known transformation.

When the US faced a shortage of Rubbers
Faced with the prospect of losing oil supplies in the Pacific and the rubber plantations of the Far East to the Japanese in the 2nd World War, the US launched on an intensive campaign to produce a synthetic rubber second only in cost to the production of the nuclear bomb.

Rubber (so called by Joseph Preistley because it could rub our marks) is an natural elastic polymer (elastomer) which hardens when heated with sulphur, (which forms sulphur bonds between molecules to form a solid 3 dimensional structure) the process of vulcanisation, a process invented by the Texan Charles Goodyear in 1839.

Synthetic rubbers were finally produced by making long linking chains, or polymers of isoprene, a volatile fragrant liquid using aluminium and titanium catalysts. By tinkering with various co-polymers, rubber chemists have produced butyl rubber, whose molecules pack together closely and is used for the interiors of tubeless tyres. The use of styrene produces styrene-butadiene rubbers, which when vulcanised is used for car tyres, the raw unvulcanised product is now the gum base for chewing gum. The addition of the related butyl rubber makes it into bubble gum. (The rubber making process usually involves fatty acids that may have animal origins, thus resulting in a non-kosher product – but certified kosher gum is available).

Made to last
So when you are chewing gum, remember it's the same stuff you get in a car tyre – and indeed it's Goodyear who produce the sticky stuff in Houston, Texas for Mr Wrigley. The long linking polymers have few sites for atmospheric oxygen to oxidise and the stable structure is resistant to ultra violet light and the aggressive and acid environment of the stomach. This highly non-biodegradeable product when spat out forms a pavement pat, which then flows into the cracks, interstices, and surface roughness, hardens, often with the aid of atmospheric sulphur and chlorine, and physically locks into place. When swallowed it passes out and on, no doubt to gum up the sewage systems, untroubled by the bacterial scavengers that await it.

So why chew gum?
The gum base is merely a carrier it has no nutritional value whatever. Chewing gum sticks consist of 70% soluble confections of sugar, fructose and dextrose from corn syrup, with essential oils such as peppermint, spearmint, cinnamon and cloves, which are volatile aromatic terpenes and like rubber, are based upon the isoprene molecule, other artificial flavouring compounds may also be used. It is not unusual to find up to 100 different chemical constituents in chewing gum.

All these compounds act on the sweet receptors on the outer frontal edges of the tongue, which satisfies a human craving. In the fastest growing market, "sugar free gum", sweetening additives are used such as aspartame (Nutrasweet), saccharin and cyclamate (banned in many countries, including the US) but are bulked up with the equally fattening, low cost but not sweet tasting starch.

It was in 1939 that the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act accepted chewing gum as a food. Due to the lengthy list of ingredients and the size of the pack, manufacturers were (remarkably) allowed a suspension of labelling requirements so ingredients do not have to be listed in order of composition. The regulations allow the exudate of at least 18 tropical tree and herb species to be used for gum base.

Glycerol a plasticizer used to keep the gum plastic, is also a sweet substance. Another constutient is the anti-oxidant butylated hydroxytoluene (BTH) limited to 200 parts per million.

Gum is also used to support the ingestion of therapeutic doses of xylotol to prevent dental caries and nicotine to help smokers quit. When "e" hit the streets in inconsistent quality and strength, gum was widely used to provide a regulated intake to prevent overdosing – this resulted in localised islands of spatter where drugs were consumed outside late night clubs and bars. Dutch kitchen pharmaceutical kitchen wizardry has almost eliminated the hazard.

As a footnote, speakeasies in the prohibition era in the US would supply heavily scented gum to enable customers to disguise their alcohol loaded breath on leaving, which resulted, even then in pavement pellets piling up.

The BBC South American service report that Wrigley's Extra Fruity gum has a street reputation as an aphrodisiac in Brazil, exceeding the well known but costlier and perhaps more effective success of Viagra(tm). An urban myth the producers are not anxious to dispel.

 
Fragrant memory?
Students in Ancient Greece used to weave rosemary in their hair as it was claimed to improve memory (Rosemary for remembrance) and typists are said to work more precisely and accurately, influenced by mint aromas.

In a report to the British Psychological Society in Blackpool, UK , 2001, Graham Scholey reported that tests showed that chewing gum resulted in some memory and attention tests resulting in 24% higher performance than non-chewers. He notes that Japanese researchers showed greater activity in the brain's hippocampus when chewing, which may relate to insulin receptors in the hippocampus being related to memory. However, points out Kim Graham of the Medical Research Unit, chewing increases heart rate which improves blood flow and hence supplies to the brain. "These findings are intriguing," she says," it is clear that questions remain to be addressed". That's academic and unsurprising scientific speak which means, we need to spend some more money, and lots more time.

The official UK policies on sticky deposits
In a little known method of communication, DEFRA published their views on chewing gum litter (postnote September 2003 number 201 www.parliament.uk/post) from the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology which highlights the current confusion about gum residues being litter. Leicester City Council has on the spot fines up to £50, enforced by street wardens which DEFRA wants other Local Authorities (LA's) to adopt.

Education and awareness started in 1933 when Mr Wrigley, evidently the copywriter in the family had the packets printed with the advice, request, demand that the user, "Use this wrapper to dispose of gum". Bournemouth Council erected gum Target boards for gum collecting and claim recovery of 1,600 pieces per week.

Faced with public unconcern about the mess they cause, there has been a focus on street cleaning which costs LA's £400Mn a year. Gum removal (which cost 45p to 31.50 per sq. metre by independent contractors) results in physical damaged to pavements, noise, energy usage to generate steam, and disruption to traders and pedestrians. A June 2003 cleaning of Trafalgar Square, London cost £8,500 say DEFRA. Prochem offer a freezer spray of 1,1,1,2, tetrafluorethan Dimethyl ether, which is highly flammable, and several street cleaners offer superheated steam, both require subsequent manual removal.

Wrigleys, Cadbury-Schweppes, Bassett and curiously Marks & Spencer are all UK suppliers, but even "liasing" with the department hasn't resulted in any change in prospect in the formulation of the offensive substance.

This leaves the would-be entrepreneur and zillionaire anxious to follow the path to the riches of the Wrigleys, three routes ;

1. A new wholly digestible gum.
2. A low cost, non-destructive cleaning method.
3. Change human nature – convert the masticators from spitters to swallowers.