A recent scandal has surfaced where the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States has been aware of some time that the widely used chemical known as formaldehyde contributes to causing cancer. This was made evident when employees at the Environmental Protection Agency were so worried that a fancy desk that their former boss Scott Pruitt had ordered for his office might contain high levels of a known carcinogen that they arranged to set it up in a warehouse and let it air out for a week. Let me iterate that once more, the former head of the EPA ordered a desk that had to air out due to the resin coating on the desk when it was delivered. It's still unknown as to why this scandal has been swept under the rug for so long but it's probably due to the widespread use of plastics and revealing this information would send the country into a panic. As a result they still have to deny it until they can figure out a solution to the issue. It would not be a good idea to present an huge issue that impacts millions of people without a plan in place.
So why do we care about this here at Steeltooth? Because most people today use combs made of plastic which contains this carcinogen. Interacting with a product every single day that has an active carcinogen will inadvertently cause cancer without you even knowing it. Our mission was to create a superior comb that performed better and lasted longer than plastic, but now we see ourselves as an alternative that can help you avoid cancer which was not something we intended. It goes deeper than that though, just think about when your plastic comb breaks and it goes into the landfill. A product with a carcinogen laced into it ends up in our oceans which is then returned back to us via rainfall or eating fish. It's quite the viscous cycle and we are only harming ourselves. Plastic changed the world. It lowered manufacturing costs and made every day items affordable, but it's time we realize the negative impacts it's having on our planet and our health and try to slowly work it out of our every day lives.
References to the information can be found here:
https://brooklynrail.org/2005/05/express/a-brief-history-of-plastic
https://www.epa.gov/formaldehyde/laws-and-regulations-concerning-formaldehyde
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/19/scott-pruitt-formaldehyde-epa-698084
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/7/6/17540658/formaldehyde-cancer-epa-scott-pruitt