# Chewing gum while smoking cigarettes - dangerous? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 13, 2000, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-while-smoking-cigarettes-dangerous/45286 "2000-12-13T02:57:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![meepins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@meepins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meepins)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2000, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-while-smoking-cigarettes-dangerous/45286/1 "2000-12-13T02:57:19Z")
This morning a friend of mine told me that smoking a cigarette while chewing gum is dangerous. Him a first year med student, I immediately spit out my gum. However, I get the sneaking suspicion that maybe he was wrong. Think you guys can help me on this quandry? ---
**Author:** ![lolagranola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ea5d25/32.png) [@lolagranola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lolagranola)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2000, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-while-smoking-cigarettes-dangerous/45286/2 "2000-12-13T03:07:59Z")
While I tend to chew gum after a smoke and not during, I can honestly say that I have done both, and obviously I’m not dead yet. I say no, probably not dangerous. Did he give an explanation? Some sort of toxic mix of chemicals, beyond the stuff in the smoke? I’ve never heard of such a thing, and I’ve heard many urban legends. ---
**Author:** ![meepins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@meepins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meepins)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2000, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-while-smoking-cigarettes-dangerous/45286/3 "2000-12-13T03:10:52Z")
Sorry, I was a little unclear. He said that you have much, much higher chance of contracting gum/throat/mouth cancer if you do both of these dastardly deeds at the same time. Perhaps because tar is collected within the gum itself? ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2000, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-while-smoking-cigarettes-dangerous/45286/4 "2000-12-13T03:23:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by meepins \* > \*\*This morning a friend of mine told me that smoking a cigarette while chewing gum is dangerous. Him a first year med student, I immediately spit out my gum. \*\* Well, someone’s gotta say it so it might as well be me… Your friend told you that smoking and chewing gum is dangerous \*so you spit out your **GUM**? \* 😕 Methinks you spit out the wrong thing, my friend. 😉 [Study Links Smoking and Gum Disease](http://jcomisi.com/page12.html) Although it doesn’t say anything on that site about chewing gum increasing your risk of these diseases, as a former smoker I can tell you that I’d also heard the same thing your friend told you. I have TMJ, so I rarely ever chew gum anyway, but if I did, I never smoked at the same time for just that very reason. I’ll continue to search and see if I can come up with some research findings to back that claim up, though. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2000, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-while-smoking-cigarettes-dangerous/45286/5 "2000-12-13T03:46:55Z")
Perhaps he was referring to those nicotine gums that smokers sometimes use to help quit? It’s definately unhealthy (well, unhealthier) to use nicotine gum/patches while still smoking. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2000, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-while-smoking-cigarettes-dangerous/45286/6 "2000-12-13T03:59:42Z")
Chewing gum while playing Russian Roulette- dangerous? Sorry. Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peace)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2000, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-while-smoking-cigarettes-dangerous/45286/7 "2000-12-13T04:06:40Z")
I do not recall any studies. Perhaps, none were done because building a gum chewing machine would be harder than building a smoking machine. Perhaps, epidemiologic studies were done. Write to Wrigley. ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2000, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-while-smoking-cigarettes-dangerous/45286/8 "2000-12-14T08:24:39Z")
dude, you can smoke and chew gum at the same time? I have much to learn, Master. still working on the chewing itself, grasshopper ---
**Author:** ![Danielinthewolvesden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Danielinthewolvesden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danielinthewolvesden)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2000, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-while-smoking-cigarettes-dangerous/45286/9 "2000-12-14T08:31:59Z")
I suppose that technicaly, adding cavities to lung cancer, impotence & heart disease- does add a bit of danger. ---
**Author:** ![doyle420](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5e9695/32.png) [@doyle420](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doyle420)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2000, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-while-smoking-cigarettes-dangerous/45286/11 "2000-12-14T15:22:55Z")
The story making the rounds during my days in college was that the gum absorbed the carcinogens from the cigarette smoke. Therefore, by chewing the tainted gum, you were bombarding your mouth with more carcinogens than it received from just smoking. According to the story, this made it more likely to develop some type of cancer in your mouth. How much truth there is to this, I do not know. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2000, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chewing-gum-while-smoking-cigarettes-dangerous/45286/12 "2000-12-14T19:38:53Z")
…is that chewing gum while smoking might heighten the risk of inadvertently swallowing tar and nicotine laced saliva. You do NOT want to do this, as tobacco is meant to be smoked and not swallowed. You know how in old stories you hear of Junior sneaking one of Dad’s cigars and getting sick on it? That’s because they inadvertently swallowed bits of cigar filler, as a result of not knowing how to trim the mouth end properly. I got sick myself once, before I learned how to do it.