I am well beyond skeptic on that. However, I did find this Dec 8, 1944 issue of
So I tend to believe this is something akin to a classic Weekly World News sort of article, possibly inspired by SpongeBob, with just enough details to be cursorily believable.
The only likely homemade explosive I could think of that would meet the color, sensitive and detonation power would be TATP. And it’s an absurd idea that someone would have isolated pure TATP just sitting there on their desk at home, knowing or unknowing. Particularly if knowing. And there was reportedly “100 g” of the material.
So let’s break this down further. “Dipping his gum into citric acid” invokes the image of Fun Dip candy:
https://allcitycandy.com/products/lik-m-maid-fun-dip-1-4-oz-case-of-24 Whether he licked a new stick of gum or pulled a solid wad out of his mouth, he would have to roll and mash the stuff into the mystery powder. I would thank THAT would set off the alleged detonation right there, which would have been instantly fatal.
If we assume for argument that he managed to get the gum into his mouth, how much material could he have on there? Not a heck of a lot. If it was gunpowder, I would say maybe the amount in one small firecracker. TATP has a detonation velocity of 5,300 m/s versus 800 to 1,000 m/s for gunpowder, and that’s consistent with the claim in the article. So, even in the most realistic scenario, that would be equivalent to five small firecrackers. Yeah that would be bad, for sure, but I doubt it would “”sever the lower portion of his face”. And people have had their jaws blown and shot off plenty of times in history without dying from it. And, going back to the Stars and Stripes story - lacerations to lip and tongue.
It’s also a reasonable inference that something like TATP would not taste good. You’d maybe chew it once, rather lightly, before spitting it out Again, giving he was just mashing it into oblivion to coat the gum, that seems really unlikely. OTOH, I should mention that C4 and RDX are pretty tasteless, but then again they are not shock-sensitive.
And if you had a detonation in your mouth, the blast wave would move mostly forward from your jaw - directly towards that 100 g pile on your desk…Kaboom.
And while there are additional reports on this from 2009, they all contain the same information with minor deviations and embellishments (much like a game of Telephone), indicating a single point of “news" origin, which would be extremely odd for a death of this nature. The internet was well-established in 2009 and one would expect additional information to flow out through non-news channels.
The lack of any further followup stories seems to cement this as a hoax. Because the police would definitely have put out a statement identifying the material, or how he got it, or how he made it.
My verdict: Apocryphal.
Stay safe!
Rob Toreki
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On Mar 23, 2026, at 1:10 PM, Jim Tung <jimtung**At_Symbol_Here**GMAIL.COM> wrote:
Does anyone have similar levels of skepticism as I do regarding the chewing gum story? I have seen it elsewhere other than the linked piece. I recognize that explosives can be shock-sensitive, but "shock-sensitive when wet" seems hard to believe.
In addition, this case has been purported to have taken place in 2009 - did anyone heard of this before 2026?
Best wishes, Jim Tung
(snip)
Headline: Blast from the Past: Exploding Chewing Gum Blows Off College Student's Jaw
Date of Incident: December 5, 2009
Location: Konotop, Ukraine
Synopsis: A 25-year-old chemistry student at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute was killed in a bizarre accident when a piece of chewing gum exploded in his mouth. Investigators believe the student, who had a habit of dipping his gum into citric acid while working, accidentally dipped the gum into an unidentified explosive chemical he was using for his studies. The resulting blast was powerful enough to sever the lower portion of his face, and forensic experts were called in from the capital to handle the remaining volatile substances found at the scene.
Original URL: https://www.foxnews.com/world/exploding-chewing-gum-blows-off-college-students-jaw
