Tainted pet food was the most recent "taint" coming from China that made news headlines. Now the FDA is telling us to throw away toothpaste made in China!

I'm going to look more carefully at things I buy. If it comes from China, it's not going to be bought if I can possibly do without it.

FDA: Throw away toothpaste made in China

FDA: Throw away toothpaste made in China
June 1, 2007

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government warned consumers on Friday to avoid using toothpaste made in China because it may contain a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze.

Out of caution, the Food and Drug Administration said, people should throw away toothpaste with labeling that says it was made in China. The FDA is concerned that these products may contain diethylene glycol.

The agency is not aware of any poisoning from toothpaste in the United States, but it did find the antifreeze ingredient in a shipment at the U.S. border and at two retail stores: a Dollar Plus store in Miami and a Todo A Peso store in Puerto Rico.

Officials said they are primarily concerned about toothpaste sold at bargain retail outlets. The ingredient in question, called DEG, is used as a lower-cost sweetener and thickening agent. The highest concentration of the chemical found in toothpaste so far was between 3 percent and 4 percent of the product's overall weight.

"It does not belong in toothpaste even in small concentrations," said the FDA's Deborah M. Autor.

The alert says the agency found DEG in three products manufactured by Goldcredit International Trading in China. The products are Cooldent Fluoride, Cooldent Spearmint and Cooldent ICE. Analysis of the products revealed they contained between 3 percent and 4 percent DEG.

I love spearmint. Would have possibly tried the brand even though I have never heard of it before.

Yes, we CAN do without much of what comes from China, especially poisoned products.

Maybe they don't clean their teeth in China?

If American companies weren't so quick to buy things made out of country because they were so much cheaper, we wouldn't have this problem. The report I watched about the tainted pet foods, had a manufacturer in china who DIDN'T use that posion in their products, but because of it, he suffered greatly, the american countries that come over are always going to take the lowest bid, regardless of why the product is cheaper.

Its the ultimate irony. Americans make less money because they aren't able to find good, solid jobs (i.e. outsourced to other countries now), so we are forced essentially to buy the cheaper products. But because we buy the cheaper products we reinforce the low standards of the cheap products and the chain goes on and on. If the jobs stayed in america in the first place, we would have better paying jobs, we could actually purchase the products we make and we wouldn't have to accept such low standards.

That is so true, lefty. But I can never convince the 'cheap plastic crap' people to shop responsibly. I am getting more and more hated because I believe in global warming, good paying jobs for Americans, supporting local businesses, conservation, natural products, etc. No one wants to hear about any of this.

We are bound for h*** in a handbasket, and we have done it to ourselves.

Blood for oil, what the heck, got to keep those SUVs clogging the roadways!

Here, would you like some toothpaste, Ms Cheapplasticcrap?

Can you believe it? It seems that some of that tainted toothpaste is still in stores! This report is from New Jersey.

Tainted toothpaste still in local stores

Monday, June 18, 2007

By DANIELLE SHAPIRO
HERALD NEWS

Counterfeit Colgate toothpaste is still being sold in some local discount stores. The tainted products are contaminated with diethylene glycol, a poison found in anti-freeze.

An informal survey of nine discount "dollar" and "99-cent" stores in Paterson, Passaic and Clifton conducted by the Herald News Sunday turned up four that were still selling potentially contaminated tubes of counterfeit Colgate toothpaste, days after a federal recall.

On June 13, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a recall order for the fake Colgate, explaining that MS USA Trading Inc. of North Bergen was recalling all 5-ounce tubes of Colgate because they may be contaminated with diethylene glycol, or DEG, a potentially poisonous chemical ingredient used in some anti-freeze. The counterfeit product was distributed in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

The Colgate-Palmolive Co. followed MS USA Trading's recall with a warning about the counterfeit toothpaste, easily recognized because the label contains several misspellings and/or says it is manufactured in South Africa. "Colgate does not import toothpaste into the United States from South Africa," according to a second FDA press release, on June 14. "Counterfeit toothpaste is not manufactured or distributed by Colgate and has no connection with the company whatsoever," the statement continued.

Results of the informal Herald News discount store survey Sunday:

Angie 99 Cents Store
611 Main St., Paterson
• Had tubes of the counterfeit toothpaste for sale.

Nickymania and More 99 Cent Store
136 4th Ave., Paterson
• Had tubes of the counterfeit toothpaste for sale.

Tom's 99 Cents & Up
350 Main St., Paterson
• Had Colgate toothpaste, but not the counterfeit.

Dollar Dream Store
327 Totowa Ave., Paterson
• Did not have the counterfeit toothpaste for sale.

Lilly 99 Cent Store
352 10th Ave. Paterson
• Closed Sunday

99 Cent Store & Plus
122 3rd St., Passaic
• Had tubes of the counterfeit toothpaste for sale.

US Dollar Green
196 Jefferson St., Passaic
• Had tubes of the counterfeit toothpaste for sale.

Family Dollar Store
215 Washington Place, Passaic
• Had real Colgate toothpaste for sale

J & M 99 Cent and Up
248 Lakeview Ave., Clifton
• Did not sell toothpaste.

The survey of local discount stores began after a Paterson resident phoned the newspaper Sunday afternoon, saying she had read the wire service story in Friday's edition and found the fake Colgate in a neighborhood store at East 19th Street and Fourth Avenue. The woman, who would not identify herself because she said she feared retribution by the storeowner, said she had complained about the toothpaste on Friday and Saturday, and been told by the owner he would remove it from the store shelves. However, when she sent her daughter to the store on Saturday, it remained on display and for sale.

When a reporter visited the Nickymania and More 99 Cent Store at 136 Fourth Ave. Sunday afternoon, she found hundreds of red boxes of Colgate marked "made in South Africa" stacked on shelves.

The cashier, who identified herself as Cynthia Guzman, said her father owned the store but did not work on Sundays. She said she had heard about the recalled toothpaste, but said she thought that it was not the kind on sale at the store. "They said it was from China or something," she said, referring to news reports. "But when I checked, they weren't from China."



LINK

China executes ex-head of food and drug agency

BEIJING - China on Tuesday executed the former head of its food and drug watchdog who had become a symbol of the country’s wide-ranging problems on product safety..

Zheng Xiaoyu’s was sentenced to death in May for taking bribes to approve an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths and other substandard medicines. Cao was given a death sentence last month with a two-year reprieve for accepting bribes and dereliction of duty.

Such suspended death sentences usually are commuted to life in prison if the convict is deemed to have reformed.

Tighter safety procedures

Zheng’s death sentence was unusually heavy even for China, believed to carry out more court-ordered executions than all other nations combined, and likely indicates the leadership’s determination to confront the country’s dire product safety record.

In North America earlier this year, pet food containing Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine was blamed for the deaths of dogs and cats.

Since then, U.S. authorities have turned away or recalled toxic fish, juice containing unsafe color additives and popular toy trains decorated with lead paint.

Chinese-made toothpaste also has been banned in a handful of countries due to its content of diethylene glycol. However, there have been no reports of health problems stemming from the product. China has no guideline banning the chemical in toothpaste, and the government says it is harmless in small amounts.

The list of food scares within China over the past year includes drug-tainted fish, banned Sudan dye used to color egg yolks red, and pork tainted with clenbuterol, a banned feed additive.