Talk:Galalith
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Production and usage
The 4th paragraph of this section is oddly irrelevant to the subject, with a detailed description of a dress, which is only tangentially related to the subject of the article. Landroo (talk) 17:49, 3 June 2015 (UTC)
False Claims
It is not galalith which is "biodegradable", but rather a select choice amongst the 19th century predecessors to galalith which were not made with formaldehyde but with borax, various salts and preservatives that ended up being ineffective since the moldable casein product didn't resist mold, was highly susceptible to water & humidity and decomposed after a short period in service. Galalith, using reticulation via formaldehyde by having preforms of pressed casein immersed in vats of formaldehyde, permitted a much more stable form despite still being susceptible to humidity it was oders of magnitude less than other forms of casein hardened without the use of formaldehyde.
Several DIY tutorials on youtube and various educational sites also boast ecological properties and propose to "make galalith at home" but using vinegar, borax and other reactives other than formaldehyde. Little be known to the unaware visitor of said websites that some of these are indeed biodegradable, "nature-friendly", though not all are "non toxic" and none are close to genuine galalith in terms of mechanical properties nor resistance to acids, water, solvents etc. Real galalith is not "non toxic" as it emits (like many other formaledhyde plastics, resins and adhesives) formaldehyde and are labeled by the industry depending on the amount released in a given timespan under specific conditions (outdoors, indoors, exposition to sun and heat , rain etc).
As for the "biodegradable" claim, real galalith does decompose with time if exposed to elements, but it is very difficult compared to earlier pre-galalith formulations, the decomposition not being complete not to mention the aforementioned release of formaldehyde byproducts (highly toxic, mutagenic and even carcinogenic) in the surrounding soil and water. We're not dealing here with just "microplastics" residues but products that induce cancer to a degree such that the industry is attempting in some applications to replace formaldehyde based polymers as much as possible with less or non toxic equivalents, aiming for a "zero emission" label.
Galalith was historically used for low voltage electrical devices in the early XXth century (as an insulator, competing with gutta percha), but despite its much higher resistance to water compared to older forms of moldable casein, it still was too sensitive to humidity to the point that industrials avoided it if they suspected a certain amount of humidity being present for the application. It was later abandoned as an electrical insulating material due to several important limitations.
There is probably a commercial reason such misleading wild claims are spreading on the internet, one can see some artisans already claiming not only galalith is "nature friendly" but also bakelite and various forms of paper-phenolic-formaldehyde composites under the pretext that the first is "made of milk" and the latter is made of "paper not discarded in nature but recycled", disregarding completely the fact that formaldehyde is mandatory to their fabrication and far from being a "natural and safe" polymerizing agent. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A01:E0A:208:4130:79FD:1274:D6A:D221 (talk) 09:58, 16 November 2024 (UTC)