PSA

[ebonlock]

Head's up, some Chinese companies are putting antifreeze in toothpaste:

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.

You can check the brands here, if you've got one, chuck it just to be on the safe side.

Comments

[murdoch.livejournal.com]

I've been watching this one. Diethylene glycol (and the usual antifreeze, ethylene glycol) taste sweet and help keep the toothpaste liquid.

Chinese government stance has been that toothpaste is not intended for ingestion, so it's OK to put it in there. Of course, it's important to sweeten children's toothpaste, and children would never swallow toothpaste... umm....

[(Anonymous)]

I think people would get the wrong idea if I went on the rant I want to go on, so I will just point at the calendar (June 4) and leave it at that....

[psyfic.livejournal.com]

Greedy capitalists - how much you want to bet it'll be like the melamine in the pet food: done in order to make the tests appear better, without any regard as to safety? I'm not pointing fingers at the Chinese, either, just greedy capitalists everywhere.

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

It's a sweetener, actually, meant to make the toothpaste taste better. The Chinese are arguing that it's safe 'cause you don't eat toothpaste...

[psyfic.livejournal.com]

Same difference. They probably use it instead of xylitol or sorbitol or saccharine because it's *cheaper*. That's always what it comes down to with these businesses.