It's said that a plastic toothbrush commits crimes not only after its disposal but also before it get its shape and form in factories. Primarily it's not a biodegradable material. Secondarily it's a product of fossil fuels. Fossil fuel means oil formed out of the crushed bodies of plants and animals millions of years back. It may consist of flesh and blood of a dinosaur or any other past animal. Anyhow that's not a big issue for non-vegs.
Tertiarily it emits cancer causing poisons like benzene before getting a cute form and style. As we know benzene may cause leukaemia or blood cancer. Besides this killer it would have emitted an another silent killer called carbon monoxide and other greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane in the oil refineries before getting its embryonic stage called naptha or after that!
The toothbrush which is meant for whitening human teeth might have once blackened the lungs of some workers or animals nearby the refineries or factories in its formative stages. The same story with respect to nylon bristles, after doing a lot of harm to somebody's life, now starts brushing the pearly teeth to shine.
Some say that the present toothbrushes are recyclable. That means they can be remoulded into new toothbrushes. But anyhow the chemistry is seem to be very obnoxious both to humanity and other biodiversity. I don't know how many old toothbrushes will get a new avatar. But majority of used toothbrushes may be a source of a municipal waste nightmare, landfill waste and dangerous pollutant after photooxidation, causing harm once again to our living communities. Neither safe before manufacturing nor after disposal!
When the plastic brush causes indirect harm before its formation and after its disposal the toothpaste causes direct harm while drenching the sensitively thin mouth linings and tasting the tongue buds inside. No doubt it's a mixture of a number of chemicals. Triclosan which is supposed to kill germs may kill the user by damaging his or her liver, kidney, lungs and endocrine systems in higher doses. Sometimes it may cause cancer too.
While protecting enamel, fluorides discolour the teeth with a mosaic of dirty spots on it. Besides that they may damage gums and bones to become cancerous also. Likewise other poor mindless chemicals are there in toothpastes to torture the human body. They are there to cheat the innocent nostrils and hidden taste buds through their alluring flavours.
After raeading so much about toothbrushes and toothpastes I decided to go for my traditional chewstick gifted by my ever beneficial neem tree (Azadirachta indica). But this one never has such a criminal record. Instead it supplies oxygen, cools down surrounding temperatures, calls the hovering clouds to rain, hosts a number of beautiful birds, holds swings for our children to enjoy a day and gives shade to human beings and mute animals before presenting us a fresh chew stick.
Along with the job of cleaning and whitening our teeth neem stick releases safe organic substances that may kill harmful germs either in the mouth cavity or in the intestine. After disposal it gets mixed up into the soil without causing any harm to the environment. What a great gift from mother nature! Let's propagate neem trees all over so that neem sticks can control toothbrush crimes.
