Ask Mr Brain...all will be explained

Is it dangerous to swallow chewing gum? If you swallow chewing gum, it is normally excreted in the usual way, and should not be a health hazard.

However, if you choke on your chewing gum and it enters the respiratory tract, this can be a serious matter.

Such accidents typically occur during contact sports like rugby. If the gum lodges in the bronchi, wheezing and infection result. If it sticks in the trachea, fatal asphyxia can ensue. Therefore chewing gum during these activities is highly inadvisable.

How did the colour red come to be associated with danger and the colour green with safety? One can only speculate on the origin of this universal code. A possible explanation is that the colour of blood of most living creatures is red; therefore red has come to be associated with danger.

Green, on the other hand, has long symbolised hope, fertility and nature.

Does the symbol have a name? In English, the symbol is boringly known as 'commercial at', but other languages offer more imaginative names. In Swedish, it is called snabel - a with an elephant's trunk - or kanelbulle, the Swedish equivalent of the Chelsea bun.

In German it is called klammerraffe - a clinging monkey, presumably hanging from the tree by an arm. In Dutch it is called apestaart, which means a monkey's tail, probably because it looks like a monkey with his tail curled over him.