April is Keep America Beautiful Month. I’ve been an avid litter-picker-upper for decades, going so far as to humiliate my children when we were out on walks by corralling papers and cups to tote to a trash can. I even worked for the local KAB (Keep America Beautiful) organization for a few years.

There’s one type of litter I won’t collect — flosser picks. I shudder to consider the billions of germs covering each pick, not to mention the bits of actual food that may be clinging. They’re plastic, so can’t be considered. The handles may be a breeding ground for viruses from human hands. So I ignore these bits of debris. Harder and harder to do as they seem to be proliferating as people determinedly seek to improve their health and appearance.

I use real floss, a string of unwaxed nylon (by the way, non-recyclable!). Many versions exist in addition to unwaxed. There’s waxed, dental tape, high-tech PTFE floss, super floss, flavored floss, and then the dreaded, by environmentalists, disposable (ha!) dental flossers or flosser picks.

My dentist and hygienist tell me at every visit, “Keep up the flossing.” And I do, even though not everyone agrees about the benefits of the practice. Those who favor it think, In addition to the potential for reducing cavities and gum disease, flossing makes their mouths feel fresher, cleaner. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is an advocate and even has made public service appearances to encourage the practice.

Flossing seems to have become widespread in the ‘80s. Prior to that time, I can’t remember a dentist pushing the practice nonstop. And late in that decade a variation made its mass-market debut — the flosser pick. Pretty clever. It eliminates the onerous chore of pulling out the floss, cutting it, twining it around your fingers. Plus it often comes on colorful and artistically designed holders.

Therein lies the problem. Flosser picks are so cute, so appealing, thousands are using the tools in any location they find themselves. They then abandon the devices, dropping them randomly everywhere. I happen to see the ones outside. They dot sidewalks, parks, beaches, gutters, streets, playgrounds.

I wonder if our collective dental health has improved significantly with the proliferation of flosser picks. Perhaps they’ve simply become substitutes for cigarettes. Many of us seem to be orally fixated. Since we can’t suck our thumbs in public, we substitute food, gum, nail biting. And cigarettes. Now that cigarette smoking is frowned upon socially, have people switched in flosser picks?

I’ve got to believe that flosser picks are just as much litter problems as cigarette butts. They’re not biodegradable, they’re ugly once abandoned, they can stab toes and soles, and animal health would be threatened should any ingest the flosser picks. In the litter competition, flosser picks are kicking the butt’s domination.

Here’s the kicker: you may pat yourself on the back that you’re using flosser picks even if they create a bit of litter. However, experts say picks aren’t as effective as the old-fashioned string floss. So don’t break your arm congratulating yourself. But DO celebrate Keep America Beautiful Month by insuring if you use flosser picks that you don’t abandon them as litter!

Bonnie McCune is a Colorado writer and has published several novels as well as other work. Her newest, Never Retreat, a romantic suspense, was published by Imajin Books. Reach her at www.BonnieMcCune.com.

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