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Chewing
Gum
`Chewing gum contains toxic
mineral hydrocarbons and should carry a health warning, warns a consumer
watchdog body.
`The Food Commission says
people should be advised they are "chewing on danger."
` "Chewing gum contains
mineral hydrocarbons - better known as paraffin wax or vaseline - which have
been banned because of their toxicity from all foods except chewing gum,
bubblegum and cheese rind," the commission said in its publication, The Food
Magazine.
`In August Food Minister
David Maclean told parliament the government urged consumers not to consume
chewing gum. He also suggested cutting off the wax rind on cheeses, leaving a
2mm cushion of cheese for safety.
`The caution followed Mr
Maclean's decision to allow mineral hydrocarbons to be used in chewing gum and
cheese wax, at least until further scientific reports are received in 1992.
`Early in 1989, the
government announced its intention to ban petroleum-based oils from most other
food uses, such as coating dried fruit.
`Philip Hamilton, managing
director of Wrigley, which holds 88 percent of British gum sales, dismissed the
Food Commission's claims as "sensationalist, inaccurate and misleading." '
(The
Johannesburg Star, December 13, 1990, p.20)
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