How far should the dental hygiene cleanup go?
Recommended dental hygiene practices include chewing sugar-free gum after meals to help keep teeth clean. A recent Saga Survey shows that about one billion pieces of gum are chewed annually by people in Britain and that gum litter is on the rise because chewers are irresponsible in disposing of their gum.
Among the solutions discussed, such as biodegradable gum and gum tax, Saga are in favour of a gum tax levied at 10p to the existing cost of each gum packet. Although gum providers like Wrigley try to integrate gum litter education into their marketing strategies, there is still no adequate enforcement for those choosing to spit out or drop their gum on pavements and roads. Local councils spend in excess of £150 million trying to clean up the mess. Saga suggests that even if the levy raised £100 million contribution to the cleanup cost, it is better than no enforcement at all.
The alternatives, such as swallowing gum, can lead to choking that may be harmful to health, and binning the gum requires that councils provide more bins for public use. Public bins in the UK have a history of use for acts of terrorism, and have therefore been removed from public spaces like stations to protect the British public and visitors. Is there a happy medium? If dentists encourage gum chewing for dental hygiene, do dentists have a role to play in educating the British public about gum litter?
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