Quick Key Facts
- Slow fashion aims to make consumers reevaluate their relationship to clothes and align with consumption habits and brands that better serve the planet.
- The apparel and footwear industries contribute to an estimated 8% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, with fashion being the third-highest polluting industry in the world.
- To reduce textile waste and pollution, slow fashion favors slower production schedules, smaller collections of clothing lines, zero-waste designs and the use of sustainable materials.
- In the EU, textile waste totals 4 million tons a year, while in the U.S. it hit 17 million tons in 2018, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimating that textile waste accounts for up to 5% of landfill space.
- Clothes are also responsible for 20% to 35% of all plastic pollution in the marine environment.
- Slow fashion advocates for ethical and transparent supply chain processes and better labor conditions. A survey by the Fashion Checker found that 93% of brands aren’t paying garment workers a living wage.
- An estimated 90% of clothes donated to charity are sent to landfills or to developing countries. Only 10% are sold or put to use domestically. To combat this, slow fashion promotes the mending, reuse and upcycling of clothing to extend its life.
- While many are averse to paying higher prices for eco-friendly fashion, according to reports 60% of millennials prefer to shop for sustainable products.
- Extending the average life of clothes by just nine months would save over $5 billion in resources used to supply, launder and dispose of clothing.
What Is Slow Fashion?
Back in 2007, design activist Kate Fletcher coined the term “slow fashion” when talking about the needs for systems-level change in the fashion industry.
It was a hat tip towards the Slow Food Movement, which began in Italy as pushback against the fast food industry, overproduction and waste, in favor of local food and traditional cuisine that supported farmers and local ecosystems.
Similarly, slow fashion aims to combat the ill effects of the fast fashion industry on supply chains, while advocating for the health of people and the environment. This happens by prioritizing the reduction in consumption, and the use of quality materials that are durable, eco-friendly and ethically sourced. Slow fashion also demands more transparency from manufacturers about supply chains.
For individual consumers, it also promotes mending damaged clothes, reusing second-hand items and upcycling to extend the life of materials to avoid having them end up in landfills.
Fast Fashion Vs. Slow Fashion
To understand the importance of the slow fashion movement, it is important first to understand the negative impact of the fast fashion Industry.
The fast fashion industry rapidly produces high volumes of clothing that replicates trends while using low-quality, inexpensive materials.
The overconsumption of this kind of fashion leads to vast amounts of textile waste, pollution and the depletion of natural resources. Human rights violations are also prevalent, as some supply chains involve poor working conditions and extremely low pay.
Pollution
The fashion industry is responsible for 8% to 10% of all global carbon emissions due to lengthy supply chains and energy-intensive production methods that create more emissions than the aviation and shipping industries combined.
The fashion industry might not be at the forefront of peoples’ minds concerning fossil fuels, but the extraction of oil leads to the creation of the plastic microfibers in most of our clothing made with synthetic materials, like polyester. The production alone of synthetic fibers accounts for 1.35% of global oil consumption.
These microfibers shed throughout usage of the clothes, especially while they are being washed, with water that ends up down the drain and reaches beaches and oceans where they can remain for hundreds of years, and be swallowed by fish and other marine life.
According to McKinsey’s 2020 State of Fashion report, fashion accounts for 20% to 35% of all the microplastic that flows into the ocean. Another study by Ocean Clean Wash found that each time we do an average load of laundry, about 9 million microfibers are released into wastewater treatment plants that cannot filter them.
The industry is also responsible for polluted waterways from the use of fertilizers in cotton production, and usage of the chemicals in textiles factories, including lead, mercury and arsenic that end up in the factory’s wastewater, and enters local waterways surrounding the factories.
This harms both aquatic life and the health of the people living in close proximity to the water.
Concerning waste at landfills, currently 60,000 tons of clothes dumped in the Atacama Desert in Chile is detectable by satellite in space.
An estimate 92 million tons of textile waste ends up in landfills with synthetic fabrics like polyester, spandex and nylon taking anywhere from 20 to 200 years to decompose if they’re not incinerated.
Water Consumption
Making clothes is a water-intensive process, with the fashion industry being the second-biggest polluter of freshwater resources. Every stage of the process involves vast quantities of water, from production to dyeing fabrics.
According to the UN, it takes 10,000 liters of water to produce just one pair of jeans. As of 2020, the fashion industry uses over 79 trillion liters of water a year.
Human Rights Violations
In the fast fashion industry, employees are often overworked, underpaid and subject to horrible working conditions.
Companies typically outsource production to low- to middle income countries as local labor laws, free trade agreements and safety standards are often not reinforced. Factory workers earn only a little over $2 a day, with some not receiving any wages, and over 85% of these workers are primarily women of color who have no health benefits or any form of financial security.
Additionally, Unicef reports that 170 million children are engaged in child labor, and many of them are in textile production.
Fashion Activism
Over the last several years, movements and social media influencers have emerged to join the slow fashion movement as well as fight for workers’ rights and the environment.
The Slow Fashion Movement is an NGO that educates and empowers consumers to slow down and choose consciously.
They have thrown multiple campaigns, like Circular Fashion, You Are What You Wear (but do you know what you wear?), Know Your Leather, and Women’s Traditional Fashion that talks about clothing being a signifier of identity and culture.
The several organizations that are fighting for workers rights and fair labor conditions include the Clean Clothes Campaign, Fair Wear Foundation (which conducts independent inspections) and Fashion Revolution.
Fashion Revolution formed in the wake of the collapse of a garment factory building in Bangladesh that killed over 1000 people, and injured another 2500, after supervisors ignored a large structural crack in the building.
There is also a growing number of dynamic young influencers who are using social media platforms to spread awareness and education about fast fashion’s impacts, and help decide what to do to create a better planet.
While many are averse to paying higher prices for eco-friendly fashion, according to reports 60% of millennials prefer to shop for sustainable products, conveying that there is demand for better practices.
Building Slow Fashion Habits
While adopting slow fashion habits can seem like a political act, given the state of the fashion industry, slow fashion habits aren’t new and have been practiced by low-income working class folks for centuries, and often out of necessity.
For those who are just starting to adopt the practice, building better habits when coming from a rushed culture of disposability involves a level of slowing down to move with more conscious intention. Here are some actions to take to adopt more slow fashion habits.
Thrifting
Thrifting is shopping for second-hand clothes enjoyed by a previous owner, which can be found at thrift stores, consignment shops, vintage clothing stores, as well as garage sales and flea markets. It’s a good way to contribute to a longer life for clothing items, which otherwise would go to a landfill.
Unfortunately, sometimes overwhelmed thrift stores who can’t get rid of their inventory also direct some of their clothing to the landfill. According to the EPA, 84% of that clothing ends up in landfills or is incinerated.
Prior to donating, hosting clothing swaps with friends or seeing who you might gift clothing to is another option to extend its wear.
Freecycling groups online are also good places to find or give away second-hand items. Search for your local Buy Nothing or Free Stuff groups on Facebook, or go to Freecycle.org to post or find items. Craigslist is another outlet for posting or finding free items.
Mending
Orsola de Castro, author of the book Loved Clothes Last: How the Joy of Rewearing and Repairing Your Clothes Can Be a Revolutionary Act, writes, “We aren’t repurposing and mending clothes because we can’t afford to buy something new – we are doing it because we can’t afford to throw something away.”
For the current generations, mending clothes that have holes, stains, tears and missing buttons is not first nature like it was in previous generations that had to extend the life of their clothes out of financial necessity. Now, the typical first impulse is to throw things out.
Mending not only extends and brings new life to some items, but allows you to slow down, be meditative and also creative. There are two types of mending: visible and invisible.
Invisible mending is when the repair technique used aims for the garment to look close to its original condition.
There are several online video tutorials on how to do invisible mending.
Visible mending takes an ornamental approach to mending clothes. This involves techniques like using patches, embroidery or darning (interweaving yarn).
Visible mending can involve embroidering blocks, flowers, colorful patches, freestyle and satin stitching, turning clothing into wearable art.
Embroidering as mending dates back to the Edo period in Japan starting in the 1600s, and was created by the working class and fishing families to create more durable clothing.
Called sashiko, worn-out pieces would be stitched together with other pieces of fabric, to last for generations.
While there are businesses that offer tailoring, mending, repairing and altering, there are also YouTube channels to get started at home.
Some can be found here: Repair What You Wear, the Essentials Club, Blueprint DIY and Easy Sewing for Beginners.
Upcycling
During World War II, the British were told they would need to ration clothing, since available supplies were used to make war uniforms. This led to a large campaign to “make do and mend.”
Supplies became so scarce that women could not buy fabric and had to resort to using curtains and tablecloths to make clothes. Today, if clothes are too damaged to repair or if they have worn out their original use, another option to consider is upcycling them by repurposing them into something valuable again.
This can involve mending, but also changing the fit of clothes by cutting it down or adding more fabric. It could mean cutting up clothes and turning them into tote bags, or patches to put on other pieces of clothing. It could mean combining fabrics from two different garments to make something completely new.
It could also mean using it as fabric wrapping paper, or at the bare minimum for cleaning your house.
This also doesn’t have to stop at wearable garments, as clothing can be used to reupholster chairs, make pillow covers, tablecloths, rugs and more.
Here is a list from DIY Candy to get started.
Building a Minimalist Wardrobe
In the 1970s, boutique owner Susie Faux got tired of seeing people spend a lot of money on items that weren’t well made, didn’t fit right and were out of season the following year, so she created what is called the capsule wardrobe.
A capsule wardrobe consists of timeless well-made garments built to last a long time, and are versatile in ways they can be worn, dressed up or down.
Over the next several decades, several designers created capsule wardrobe pieces to guide people into emphasizing quality over quantity.
Policy
Over the last few years, several campaigns and policymakers have tried to regulate the fashion industry’s impact on humans and the environment. Some have passed, others haven’t, but some are still being campaigned for.
In the EU, a grassroots campaign called Good Clothes, Fair Pay fought for living wage legislation, but legislation has yet to be passed.
In 2020, France did pass a first-of-its-kind anti-waste law to protect the environment from the amount of waste people create. The law bans stores from disposing unsold goods. Instead of being burned or scrapped, they must be recycled, redistributed or reused.
The Fashion Sustainability and Accountability Act in New York, which stalled in the House in 2022, has been reintroduced for 2023.
The key elements of the Act would involve supply chain mapping for apparel and footwear retailers that operate in New York with a global revenue of at least $100 million. They would be required to map their supply chains and subsequently address and remediate supply chain issues.
It would also require due diligence in requiring brands to identify, cease, prevent, mitigate, account for and remediate adverse impacts to human rights and the environment in their own operations. If passed, it will require brands to assess potential adverse impacts from their supply chain relationships.
It would also involve a fashion remediation fund that will consist of money by fashion sellers who have been fined.
Several states in the U.S., as well as other countries in the EU, have Extended Producer Responsibility laws, which involve producers’ responsibilities for the end lives of their products. These include take back and recycling programs as well as designing new products that are easier to reuse, repair and recycle.
Choosing Sustainable Fashion Brands
Sustainable fashion can often be more expensive than other fashion due not only to higher quality materials, but also because ethical brands pay their employees living wages. Their sourcing of materials (cotton grown without pesticides, for example) often involves paying higher prices to farmers.
Looking for more affordable brands can also leave people vulnerable to greenwashing, which is when companies claim they are eco-friendly but still continue to pollute the environment.
Big brands like H&M and Decathlon have been found by regulators to have made false claims, and according to a screening of sustainability claims in the textile, garment and shoe sector, 39% could be false or deceptive.
GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standards) is one of the newer verification systems that shows that brands are using sustainably processed fabrics and organic materials. Some of those clothes carry that labeling.
In order to get GOTS approval, clothing must be made from 70% or more organically farmed fibers. Only low-impact chemicals are permitted to protect consumer health as well as the environment. Manufacturers must meet water and energy consumption targets and procedures, and garment factory workers rights are upheld by the key safety norms and values of the International Labour Organisation.
When looking for items that are GOTS certified, when typing in items you are looking for into a search engine with GOTS (for example “GOTS white t-shirt), a number of items will pop up.
However, here is a list of some companies that not only provide sustainable clothing, but have ethical supply chains:
A nonprofit social enterprise that addresses the exploitation of women, Anchal uses several sustainable fabrics and has a whole collection of GOTS Cotton with quilts, pillows, clothing and more.
An affordable sustainable fashion brand that utilizes GOTS-certified cotton, Pact offers a wide range of clothing.
Tentree offers apparel made ethically from eco-conscious fabrics like organic cotton, recycled polyester, TENCEL and hemp.
Beaumont Organic features a wide range of clothing using organic fabrics for their fair trade clothing ranges.
Seek Collective is a U.S. brand dedicated to transparency, authenticity, craft and sustainability.
Here is a more extensive list curated by Good on You.
The post Slow Fashion 101: Everything You Need to Know appeared first on EcoWatch.
https://www.ecowatch.com/slow-fashion-facts-ecowatch.html
Today’s quote is from writer, businessman, and conservationist Simon M. Lamb. In his book, Junglenomics: Nature’s Solutions to the World Environment Crisis, he suggests that nature provides solutions to help us reform our environmentally destructive economic practices.
Lamb writes, “As in nature, so in economics — what provides survives.”
Earth911 inspirations. Post them, share your desire to help people think of the planet first, every day. Click the poster to get a larger image.
Editor’s Note: This poster was originally published on March 27, 2020.
The post Earth911 Inspiration: What Provides Survives — Simon M. Lamb appeared first on Earth911.
https://earth911.com/inspire/earth911-inspiration-what-provides-survives-simon-m-lamb/
Summer is a time for playing outside and enjoying the environment. At least one study has shown that playing outside as a child is an important predictor of protecting the environment as an adult. But parents need to ensure kids keep up their reading skills, which often slide over the summer.
These books with environmental themes, sorted by reading level, will improve both your kids’ literacy and their environmental awareness. We suggest reading them in a treehouse or on a picnic blanket in the sun.
Earth911 teams up with affiliate marketing partners to help fund our Recycling Directory. If you purchase an item through one of the affiliate links in this post, we will receive a small commission.
Picture Books
A Leaf Can Be …
by Laura Purdie Salas
A leaf can be a … shade spiller, mouth filler, tree topper, rain stopper. Find out about the many roles leaves play in this poetic exploration of leaves throughout the year. Pair it with the companion volumes A Rock Can Be … and Water Can Be … for a full nature-cycle set.
The Tantrum That Saved the World
by Megan Herbert and Michael E. Mann
A little girl inherits a huge problem she didn’t ask for — and then channels strong emotions into positive action. Co-written by climate scientist Michael E. Mann, the second half explains the science of climate change in age-appropriate language and closes with a kid-friendly action plan.
Seeds of Change: Wangari’s Gift to the World
by Jen Cullerton Johnson
It’s never too early for children to see examples of strong women who make the world a better place. This picture-book biography of Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai illustrates the often-overlooked intersection between ecology and justice, which makes this example even better.
We Are Water Protectors
by Carole Lindstrom, illustrated by Michaela Goade
New to this list. Winner of the 2021 Caldecott Medal, the first awarded to a Native American illustrator, this lyrical, gorgeously painted book follows an Ojibwe girl who rallies her community to defend the water against a “black snake” pipeline. It introduces the youngest readers to Indigenous environmental stewardship and the idea that water is life.
Books for Younger Middle Grade
The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge
by Joanna Cole
Trust the beloved kids’ science series Magic School Bus to explain the facts of global warming in ways kids understand, and to give them ideas about how they can help. Ms. Frizzle takes the class from the Arctic to the equator to see the signs of a warming planet firsthand.
The Last Bear
by Hannah Gold
New to this list. There are no polar bears left on Bear Island, or so April’s father tells her when his research takes them to a remote Arctic outpost. Then April spots one: hungry, lonely, and far from home. Hannah Gold’s award-winning debut (a Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and Blue Peter Book Award winner) pairs a tender friendship story with a clear-eyed look at melting sea ice, illustrated throughout by Levi Pinfold.
Operation Redwood
by S. Terrell French
The environmental movement is too often associated with white people. In Operation Redwood, a biracial boy challenges his rich relatives to look past the profit motive and protect an old-growth redwood grove on property they own.
Books for Middle-Grade Tweens
Two Degrees
by Alan Gratz
New to this list. From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Refugee, this fast-moving novel braids together three kids facing three climate disasters — a California wildfire, stranded polar bears in Manitoba, and a Florida hurricane — into one connected story. It won the 2023 Green Earth Young Adult Book Award and reads like a thriller, which makes it a strong pick for reluctant readers.
Gorilla Dawn
by Gill Lewis
Two children living in the Congo’s war zone risk everything to protect a captured baby gorilla from a life in captivity. Although not graphic, this book is intense. It addresses the impact of violence on children and wildlife and reveals the connection between the rare-earth minerals in consumer electronics and devastating destruction in Africa.
Squirm
by Carl Hiaasen
While not as overtly environmentalist as the well-known Hoot, Hiaasen’s eco-adventure features tween protagonists who care about animals and appreciate the natural world more than the adults around them — here, a Florida kid who heads to Montana to find his father and ends up tangling with poachers, a spy drone, and a grizzly. His characteristic irreverent humor is on full display.
The Last Wild
by Piers Torday
A boy who can talk to animals — but not people — fights against extinction in a world where a virus has wiped out nearly all wildlife. The first book in a gripping trilogy, it’s a natural conversation-starter about biodiversity loss and what a landscape looks like once the wild things are gone.
The Casket of Time
by Andri Snær Magnason
From poetry to nonfiction, books by Icelandic author Andri Snær Magnason are unified by environmental concern. Now available in English, his 2013 novel for tweens and teens, The Casket of Time, tells the story of Sigrun, a teenager whose TimeBox® opens too early. Her family entered the TimeBoxes to sleep out “the situation,” but now she finds herself among the few who are left awake to fix the world. Younger readers will enjoy his first children’s book, The Story of the Blue Planet.
Make the Most of Summer Reading
A few simple habits help these books do double duty — building reading stamina and environmental awareness at the same time:
- Read outside. Pairing a nature story with time in a backyard, park, or trail reinforces the connection the research points to between outdoor play and lifelong environmental care.
- Borrow before you buy. Most of these titles are available through your local library or its e-book app, which keeps reading low-cost and low-waste. Buy the keepers your kids want to read again.
- Talk about the action steps. Several of these books — The Tantrum That Saved the World, Two Degrees, Old Enough-style activist stories — end with concrete things kids can do. Pick one and try it together.
- Pass them on. When your family outgrows a book, donate it to a school, Little Free Library, or shelter so it keeps circulating instead of heading to the recycling bin.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Gemma Alexander on May 10, 2019, and was most recently updated with new titles in June 2026.
The post Stop the Summer Reading Slide With Eco-Themed Kids’ Books appeared first on Earth911.
https://earth911.com/inspire/eco-themed-kids-books/
In 2025, independent lab testing found that roughly 90% of the toothpastes it examined contained detectable lead. The brands implicated were not fringe products, including household names like Crest, Colgate, Sensodyne, and Tom’s of Maine, along with dozens of formulas marketed for children and many sold as “natural” or “green.”
That headline rattled a lot of medicine cabinets, and it deserves a careful look rather than a panic. Toothpaste is, after all, a cleaner we put in our mouths twice a day for a lifetime. Knowing what’s in it, what the science says about the risk, and which ingredients raise legitimate environmental and health questions is worth a few minutes. Here’s where the evidence stands now.
Toothpaste, a History
The history of oral hygiene dates back nearly 7,000 years to an abrasive powder made from materials like eggshells, pumice stone, or ox hoof ashes. Egyptians would wet the powder and rub it on their teeth. Later the Romans and Chinese sought to improve the flavor of their abrasive powders with herbal ingredients like mint and ginseng. Not much changed until the 1800s, when inventors added soap and chalk to the powder.
The first toothpaste tube, which was made of lead, was introduced in the 1890s. (Yes, lead has a long and unfortunate history with this product.) It was the first of many changes that followed in the 20th century, as a host of new chemicals both increased the effectiveness and the environmental and health risks of toothpaste. In 1955, Procter and Gamble released the first stannous fluoride cavity-preventing toothpaste. Fluoride remains the most common active ingredient in toothpaste today.
Personal care products of all kinds were largely homemade until the last century, and that is still an option today. You can make your own toothpaste and mouthwash at home using simple ingredients you already have in your kitchen. Talk to your dentist before giving up fluoride, though, which is proven to deter cavities.
The Heavy Metals Question
The 2025 lead findings came from Lead Safe Mama, a consumer-advocacy operation run by lead-poisoning-prevention activist Tamara Rubin. Its program crowdfunds samples and sends them to an independent, third-party lab. Across roughly 51 toothpastes and a few tooth powders, about 90% tested positive for lead, 65% for arsenic, just under half for mercury, and about a third for cadmium. All four are toxic; lead and arsenic are particularly concerning for children’s developing brains.
That sounds alarming, and the contamination is real. But context matters enormously here.
Where the metals come from
The contamination appears to be unintentional, traced to naturally sourced ingredients that carry trace metals when they aren’t purified: hydroxyapatite (often derived from animal bone or mineral sources), calcium carbonate (an abrasive), and especially bentonite clay, a natural “detoxifying” ingredient that was a recurring culprit in the highest-contamination products.
Rubin’s ingredient testing found the raw materials themselves were contaminated, which points to a supply-chain and sourcing problem rather than one or more bad actors.
The regulatory gap
None of the tested products exceeded the FDA’s federal limit for lead in toothpaste, which is 10,000 parts per billion (ppb) for fluoride-free pastes and 20,000 ppb for fluoride pastes. However, those thresholds are substantially higher than the limits set for food. By comparison, California caps lead in baby food at 6 ppb, and the proposed federal Baby Food Safety Act would set 10 ppb, neither of which covers toothpaste. Most tested pastes cleared the baby-food bar by a wide margin but sit far below the cosmetic ceiling.
Washington State has moved to close part of that gap. Its Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act set a 1,000 ppb lead limit for cosmetics, including toothpaste. A handful of products in the testing exceeded it, with the worst offender, a brand called Primal, containing 7,800 ppb. Companies have been given time to come into compliance.
What an independent risk assessment found
After the headlines, toxicologists reviewed the Lead Safe Mama results. A peer-reviewed screening-level risk assessment published in Public Health Toxicology in 2025 used Lead Safe Mama’s own data and deliberately conservative assumptions, including the worst-case scenario that a child swallows a full smear of toothpaste at every brushing. The conclusion: for cadmium and mercury, exposures fell below health-guidance values across the board. For lead and arsenic, on the other hand, a handful of products exceeded the most protective guidance levels under heavy-use scenarios, but the doses were still several times to several orders of magnitude lower than what children and adults already get from food, household dust, and soil.
The researchers’ assessment concluded that the heavy metals detected “are not anticipated to increase health risk” through typical use, and that a normal pea-sized amount is safe. That doesn’t make the contamination acceptable; no level of lead exposure is considered safe, and unnecessary exposure is still worth avoiding. But it reframes the story from “your toothpaste is poisoning you” to “your toothpaste is one more avoidable trace source in a world that has too many.”
A small set of products came back as free of all four metals, proving cleaner sourcing is achievable. They included Dr. Brown’s Baby Toothpaste, Spry Kids’ tooth gel, Orajel Training Toothpaste, and Miessence. (Earth911 will receive a small fee if you make a purchase through these links.) As of mid-2025, Lead Safe Mama listed seven products meeting its non-detect threshold.
Other Ingredients Worth Watching
Heavy metals aren’t the only thing in the tube that draws scrutiny. A few others come up repeatedly:
- Titanium dioxide. This white pigment (listed as CI 77891) does nothing for your teeth; it’s purely cosmetic, there to make the paste look bright white. The EU banned it as a food additive in 2022 over genotoxicity concerns, and the EU’s Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety has said a mutagenic effect from oral cosmetic use can’t be ruled out. It remains legal in toothpaste in both the EU and the US, and the FDA still permits it, but many manufacturers are dropping it voluntarily. Since it has no functional benefit, it’s an easy one to skip.
- Sulfates (SLS). Sodium lauryl sulfate, the foaming agent, is not linked to cancer despite a persistent internet rumor. It can be a skin and tissue irritant for sensitive people and has been associated with canker sores. SLS-free options are widely available if you’re prone to either.
- The sodium pyrophosphate used to prevent tartar can pass through wastewater treatment and feed algal blooms and create dead zones in waterways. Phosphates aren’t in every paste, and some mainstream brands offer phosphate-free formulas.
The Fluoride Debate Got Louder
Fluoride remains the most studied and most effective cavity-preventing ingredient in toothpaste, and major dental and pediatric organizations continue to recommend it. But the politics around it shifted sharply in 2025.
In May 2025, the FDA began action to pull ingestible fluoride supplements (drops and tablets that are swallowed) for children off the market, citing concerns about the gut microbiome and finalizing the move that October. It’s important to read what that action covers: the FDA explicitly distinguished swallowed supplements from topical fluoride in toothpaste and rinses, which you spit out and which it did not move against. The American Academy of Pediatrics and American Dental Association both pushed back hard, warning the broader anti-fluoride momentum could drive up tooth decay.
The underlying science is genuinely unsettled at the edges. A 2025 JAMA Pediatrics meta-analysis found an inverse association between fluoride exposure and children’s IQ, but mostly at exposure levels well above US water-fluoridation concentrations, with the dose-response uncertain at lower levels. The takeaway for toothpaste users is narrow: spitting out a topical fluoride paste is a different exposure than swallowing a concentrated supplement, and the evidence against topical use remains thin. If your water is already fluoridated and you’d rather avoid it, that’s a reasonable personal choice, and there’s now a better-supported alternative than there used to be.
Hydroxyapatite: The Fluoride Alternative That’s Earning Its Claims
Nano-hydroxyapatite is a synthetic version of the mineral that makes up tooth enamel, and has moved from niche fluoride alternative to credible option. A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis in the Journal of Dentistry concluded that hydroxyapatite toothpaste can be an effective alternative to fluoride for preventing caries progression and remineralizing early lesions, with the added pitch of strong biocompatibility. A 2025 narrative review of recent clinical trials reached a similar conclusion, calling it a safe and effective option, especially for children or anyone at risk of fluoride overexposure, with possible added benefits for tooth sensitivity.
While the data is piling up fast, research on hydroxyapatite is earlier and thinner than fluoride’s decades of data, and some trials are industry-funded. Second — and this is the irony — hydroxyapatite is one of the ingredients flagged as a potential heavy-metals vector when it’s not well purified. The lesson isn’t to avoid it; it’s to favor brands that publish third-party purity testing.
Animal Welfare
It may surprise you that some toothpastes contain animal products. Propolis is sourced from bees. Unless specified otherwise, calcium phosphate and glycerin can be derived from animal bone and fat. If you’d rather not brush with animal byproducts, look for vegan-certified products.
Even toothpastes without animal ingredients may have been tested on animals. To avoid those, look for Leaping Bunny certified products. Vegan and cruelty-free aren’t the same thing, so a product can carry one certification without the other.
Packaging
Toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes can be recycled, but it’s not as simple as tossing them in the curbside bin. Most tubes are multi-layer plastic that local programs can’t process. That’s slowly changing: Tom’s of Maine, Colgate (though Bloomberg found the company’s recyclability claims aren’t well supported), and other brands are transitioning to recyclable plastic tubes.
Tube-free products sidestep the packaging problem entirely. Toothpaste tablets and chewables come in glass or metal-tin packaging, tooth powders ship in tins or jars, and some brands now use aluminum pods.
Sorting the Concerns by How Much They Matter
Not every flagged ingredient carries the same weight. Here’s a plain-language triage based on current evidence:
| Concern | What the evidence says | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy metals (lead, arsenic) | Real but small relative to diet and dust; below federal limits, above some state and baby-food limits. No safe level of lead exists. | Use a pea-sized amount; favor brands publishing purity testing; supervise kids’ brushing. |
| Titanium dioxide | Cosmetic only, no dental benefit; EU genotoxicity concerns; still legal in toothpaste. | Easy to skip — it does nothing for your teeth. Check the label for CI 77891. |
| Phosphates | Mainly an environmental concern (algal blooms), not a personal-health one. | Choose phosphate-free if available; not in every brand. |
| SLS (sulfates) | Not carcinogenic; can irritate sensitive tissue and trigger canker sores. | Go SLS-free only if you get canker sores or have sensitivity. |
| Fluoride | Topical use (spit out) remains well supported; concerns center on swallowed supplements at high doses. | Keep using it, or switch to clinically supported hydroxyapatite if you prefer fluoride-free. |
What You Can Do
You don’t need to throw out your toothpaste. A few practical moves address the real concerns without overcorrecting for the overblown ones:
- Use a pea-sized amount. It’s the single most effective step for cutting any ingredient exposure. The risk assessment found it erases most heavy-metal concerns, and it make the tube last longer, which reduces waste.
- Supervise young kids’ brushing. Children swallow more toothpaste than adults, so they’re the most relevant group for any ingestion concern. Use a rice-grain smear for under-3s and a pea for older kids.
- Favor transparency. Choose brands that publish third-party testing for heavy-metal purity, especially if your paste contains hydroxyapatite, calcium carbonate, or bentonite clay.
- Skip the purely cosmetic stuff. Titanium dioxide adds whiteness and nothing else. Check the ingredient list for “CI 77891” and pick a formula without it.
- Keep brushing with an effective active. Fluoride (spit it out) or clinically supported hydroxyapatite both prevent cavities. Don’t trade a proven benefit for an unproven fear.
- Ditch the tube where you can. Tablets, powders, and tinned formats avoid multi-layer plastic.
- Don’t run the tap. Leaving the water running while you brush can waste up to four gallons of fresh water each time, even with a low-flow faucet.
Toothpaste is cleaner than the scariest headlines suggest and messier than the industry would like to admit. The contamination is real, the regulatory ceiling is too high, and the fixes are simple. Brush well, use less, read the label, and don’t let the noise talk you out of caring for your teeth.
Related Reading
- Toothpaste Ingredients To Avoid
- How To Make Your Own Toothpaste
- Recycling Toothbrushes and Toothpaste Tubes
- Vegan and Cruelty-Free Certifications, Explained
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Gemma Alexander on January 3, 2022, and was substantially updated in June 2026, when we added the 2025 findings on heavy-metal contamination, the FDA’s fluoride-supplement action, titanium dioxide regulation, and clinical evidence on hydroxyapatite.
The post How Clean Is Your Toothpaste? appeared first on Earth911.
https://earth911.com/health/how-clean-is-your-toothpaste/
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