BUBBLE GUM - A DANGEROUS DELIGHT
What had been traditionally called chewing gum has a modern ‘avatar’ as Bubble gum. History traces the chewing practice to Neolithic times of 5000 years ago or so. Texture, softness, flexibility, elasticity with the ‘plasticers’ / aroma/ sugar in its composition, make the stuff chewable. For long it has been a child’s delight and can we say Cricketers are child-like in their urge to keep chewing through the game? Ironically, a stuff so ‘inviting’ to users has no place anywhere beyond the buccal cavity [mouth cavity] of any user. The well known adage ‘DO NOT CHEW MORE THAN WHAT YOU CAN SWALLOW’ fails rather miserably in that, for Bubble gum, the saying deserves a revision as “ DO NOT SWALLOW ANY BIT HOWEVER BIG YOU MAY CHEW”.
The stuff so eagerly procured and
popped into mouth keeps the person engaged like a grinding mill, sorry like a
squashing mill despite turning a bland pale non-sense causing only salivation
with no salvation of any kind to the chewer or the chewed ; what a commitment
it is for no return ! Children get so much drawn to it that we are afraid they
may hit the point of no return from this addiction. Boys and girls chewing
bubble gum daily, find it hard to disband the practice even if warned of bad
consequences. Some of them are quite adept in triggering a huge balloon-like
blob popping out from mouth. True to the name bubble, the blob explodes and
collapses into a relic of a glorious balloon expanding from the mouth. Again
the exploded fragments are chewed and made balloon-like stuff to repeat the
hobby unabated.
Cricketers take to
chewing gum more to salivate in the playing times than to keep drinking water
to quench thirst. Consuming water in a session of play might necessitate visits
to rest room, causing a dislocation to the proceedings of the game. But, there
cannot be a healthy justification to use of chewing gum by children.
Children are basically
tempted by the flavor added to the stuff by manufacturers. Upon chewing for a
while, the stuff loses any aroma and turns colourless, falavourless , rubbery, sticky mass liberally inducing
salivary juices and to an extent robbing the individual of his /her inclination
to taste food. Silently, it hampers food intake by children.
Preferably, children do
not get into the habit of chewing. There are other complications arising out of
the ‘discarded chewed gum’. The gummy stuff retains moisture and readily
adheres to footwear, wheels of vehicles, bodies of pets at home. Sometimes,
such gum gets stuck to head of young kids making it extremely hard to dislodge
the gum clinging on to hairs like ‘nemesis. At times, tonsuring the head is the
way out to rid the child head of the sticky gum. Once on to the foot wear, the
item reaches our homes and may get transferred on to the floor, leaving a
sticky mass -a menace to tackle. Occasional deaths from gum blocking the
windpipe of children are known too.
Whatever be the popularity, children should stay off such items which
rob their time and energy just for chewing, leaving no benefit to health.
Prof. K. Raman
The use of bubble gum is much reduced as there is an awareness among children .I have my own experience in my college.Students after chewing bubble gum stick it on cycle seat which can not be removed easily. They do it on the class room benches and it is difficult to be removed. In our apartment some children put the bubble gum on the switches of the lift. Yet some still use the bubble gum for fun.
ReplyDeleteK.Venkataraman