A Dilemma

This past week was my dissection week. My partner and I are only "on call" one week a month, so it's really not bad, but each day we're presented with a dilemma. And my dilemma is the following: should we chew gum in the cadaver lab?
We both have done it in the past, and had multiple people ask us how we could chew gum while tearing away globs of oily fat from our cadaver's gut? I guess I have the same question. But first, let me set the scene.
Cadaver labs are not pleasant places to be. There are four large rooms that are all connected. They are lit by fluorescent lights and are filled with 30+ large steel containers, each one housing a body. Of course, to preserve the bodies, they have all been filled with formaldehyde among other things. The smell is overwhelming and seeps in to all your pores and doesn't come out. But, we have to dissect really small veins and arteries, and often times it's hard to see what you're doing without getting right up into the body, face inches away from a spleen. And (for all you with weaker dispositions, perhaps read no more), it is not uncommon to get splattered with formaldehyde or pieces of tissue/fat/janketyjankjank.
In situations like this, I tend to breathe through my nose because I don't like the idea of ingesting the bad smell through my mouth (even though I know it's the same air going the same place blah blah). But breathing through my nose means that I smell all the terrible smells coming from the body, which doesn't always sit well with my stomach. Chewing gum at least gives me a good taste in my mouth, which generally combats the bile rising in my throat pretty well.
So I think I answered my question. I'd rather chew gum in the cadaver lab. It's the one non-disgusting thing anywhere near me. Even though yes, it is gross to be simulating eating something while in close proximity to a deceased elderly gentleman whom I have cut into many pieces. There's just no way around that. So judge away.

Or... you probably don't care because you'll never be in this situation. But I bet you enjoyed picturing all of this in the same way you can't look away from a car crash or someone falling.
You're welcome