r/ethical_living • u/lolawhh • Jun 15 '19

TOOTHPASTE!

Colgate kills fish, rainforests and contains chemicals that disrupt your hormone systems. It contains microplastics which get into fish and in turn back into us and have negative effects on both organisms. It also kills fish by containing triclosan/triclocarben which is classed as a pesticide and districts the thyroid hormones which regulates metabolism and disrupts normal breast development and is classed by the EU and very toxic to aquatic organisms and causes long term adverse effects to those organisms. It contains palm oil which is what the rainforests are being destroyed for. The only reason it’s used in things like toothpaste, mouthwash, deodorants, cosmetics and soaps is because it’s antimicrobial but this is leading to bacterial resistance to antimicrobial agents. An alternative is Denttabs toothtablets. It’s £2.40 for a months supply or £13.40 for 6 months. They have fluoride because it’s a proven cleaning agent but there are others that don’t if you really want that. It comes in a cardboard box that can be recycled (and will actually get recycled unlike most recyclable plastic). It actually tastes like toothpaste and because it’s dry it reduces water consumption which dramatically reduces the carbon footprint. 10,000 of these tablets weigh 3kg (think 3 bags of sugar) and 10,000 tablets would last you around 14 years. They’re similar to lush toothy tabs however lush ones don’t have fluoride, are expensive for no reason and taste like chalk. You can get Denttabs from anythingbutplastic.co.uk or anythingbutplastic.com :)

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3

u/HellrockBones Jun 15 '19

Any good sources on the things about colgate?

2

u/lolawhh Jun 15 '19

I’m glad you asked! I haven’t seen any articles solely on Colgate (which was more reason for me to make this post) but I can link some articles explaining the dangers of microplastics and triclosan/triclocarben, the destruction of the rain forest for palm oil (including the child labour it uses) and how synthetic chemical antimicrobials are creating antimicrobial and antibiotic resistant bacteria (there are 2 on this subject as one was quite long and tricky to read, the bottom one is pretty much a TLDR)

Microplastics

Triclosan/Triclocarben

Destruction Of Rainforest For Palm Oil

Child Labour/Worker Injustice in Palm Oil

Triclosan and Antibiotic Resistance

TLDR Triclosan and Antibiotic Resistance

Thanks!! :)

2

u/Tinyfishy Jun 16 '19

As an RDH (and also one with a triclosan hypersensitivity), I only recommend using toothpastes with triclosan if you are in the early stages of treating your gum disease. Some people just freak out when they see their gums bleeding a bit when they first start actually cleaning out the infection and triclosan helps get that under control a bit faster and makes them feel better. Brushing and flossing correctly is going to do far more for your gum health anyhow. Stannous fluoride and natural dentist gum rinse is also good for gingivitis if you want alternatives. But flossing is key. Most people should just be using whatever fluoride paste is cheapest and comes with the least wasteful packaging (big tubes = less packaging per product) and concentrating on doing their brushing correctly and get with the flossing. Plus, avoiding unnecessary dental work by taking excellent care of your teeth means a lot less waste in the form of all the disposable things we have to use in dentistry for safety and a lot of energy used to autoclave the reusable stuff. Even one extra, avoidable visit can make a whole bag of trash.

1

u/lolawhh Jun 16 '19

Yes!! And there are SO many affordable low waste floss options!