What are the risks of choking while chewing gum?
Any food consumed may, in exceptional circumstances, present a choking hazard. Chewing gum is no different from any other food in this respect. Chewing gum is not designed to be swallowed. Chewing gum is made of five basic ingredients – sugar or sugar-free sweeteners, glucose syrup, softeners, flavors and gum base (the insoluble part that puts the “chew” in chewing gum). The first four ingredients are soluble and are extracted from the gum as you chew. Gum base, however, is not. If gum is swallowed, the gum base simply passes through one’s system as other roughage does. This normally takes only a few days.
