June 2, 2007
Toxic Toothpaste Made in China Is Found in U.S.
By WALT BOGDANICH
Consumers were advised yesterday to discard all toothpaste made in China
after federal health officials said they found Chinese-made toothpaste
containing a poison used in some antifreeze in three locations: Miami,
the Port of Los Angeles and Puerto Rico.
Although there are no reports of anyone being harmed by the toothpaste,
the Food and Drug Administration warned that the Chinese products had a
“low but meaningful risk of toxicity and injury” to children and people
with kidney or liver disease.
The United States is the seventh country to find tainted Chinese
toothpaste within its borders in recent weeks.
Agency officials said they found toothpaste containing a small amount of
diethylene glycol, a sweet, syrupy poison, at a Dollar Plus retail store
in Miami, sold under the brand name ShiR Fresh Mint Fluoride Paste. The
F.D.A. also identified nine other brands of Chinese toothpaste that
contain diethylene glycol, some with concentrations of 3 percent to 4
percent.
Previously, only a few brands had been identified by health officials
around the world as containing diethylene glycol and all of them listed
the chemical on the label.
But diethylene glycol was not listed on the label of the toothpaste
found in the Miami store. Its presence was detected only because the
F.D.A. began testing imported Chinese toothpaste last month. That
precaution was prompted by the discovery in Latin America of tens of
thousands of tubes of tainted toothpaste made in China.
Over the years, counterfeiters have found it profitable to substitute
diethylene glycol for its chemical cousin, glycerin, which is usually
more expensive. Glycerin is a safe additive commonly found in food,
drugs and household products. In toothpaste, glycerin is used as a
thickening agent.
Chinese regulators said Thursday that their investigation of toothpaste
manufacturers there had found they had done nothing wrong. Chinese
officials also said that while small amounts of diethylene glycol could
be safely used in toothpaste, new controls would be imposed on its use
in toothpaste.
The F.D.A. said diethylene glycol in any amount was not suitable for use
in toothpaste.
The agency said two Chinese companies, Goldcredit International Trading
and the Suzhou City Jinmao Daily Chemicals Company, made the tainted
brands found in the United States.
In a statement yesterday, federal health officials called
diethylene-glycol poisoning “an important public safety issue.” The
Panamanian government last year inadvertently mixed the poison made in
China into 260,000 bottles of cold medicine, killing at least 100
people, prosecutors there said.
In that case, Chinese regulators acknowledged on Thursday that two
companies in China had “engaged in some misconduct” in the way they
labeled and sold the diethylene glycol, but they said a Panamanian
importer bore most of the blame.
Last month, after publicity over the poisoning deaths from the cold
medicine, a consumer in Panama noticed that toothpaste in a store listed
diethylene glycol as an ingredient and notified the authorities.
Eventually it was traced to China, and since then countries around the
world have been on the lookout for the product.
In addition to the United States and Panama, tainted toothpaste has been
found in Australia, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Honduras and
Nicaragua.
Chinese exports of toothpaste to the United States account for $3.3
million out of a $2 billion-dollar market in America, F.D.A. officials
said. “The scope of this is fairly small when you look at all the
toothpaste that is consumed in the U.S.,” Doug Arbesfeld, an agency
spokesman, said.
The agency said Chinese-made brands with diethylene glycol were
typically sold at low-cost, “bargain” retail outlets. A man answering
the phone at the Dollar Plus store in Miami, identified by federal
officials as selling the Chinese toothpaste, said he did not want to be
interviewed because his English was poor. The man, who did not give his
name, said federal inspectors came to his store yesterday.
Mr. Arbesfeld said that six tubes were confiscated there and that
several more were found at the store’s distributor. Those tubes were
destroyed. F.D.A. officials also said they had confiscated several
brands of toothpaste at the Port of Los Angeles and at a retail store in
Puerto Rico.
The agency said toothpaste containing diethylene glycol was sold under
the names Cooldent Fluoride, Cooldent Spearmint, Cooldent ICE, Dr. Cool,
Superdent, Clean Rite, Oralmax Extreme, Oral Bright, Bright Max, and
ShiR Fresh Mint.
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