Chewing gum releases hundreds of tiny plastic pieces straight into people's mouths, researchers said on Tuesday, also warning of the pollution created by the rubber-based sweet.

“Our initial hypothesis was that the synthetic gums would have a lot more microplastics because the base is a type of plastic,” Lisa Lowe, the study’s co-collaborator and a graduate student in Mohanty’s lab, explained in a statement. (Yes, certain types of synthetic gum contain petroleum-based polymers.)

Plastic is everywhere. And many products we use in everyday life can expose people to tiny, micrometer-wide plastic particles called microplastics. Now, chewing gum could be added to the list. In a pilot study,