Could U.S. toothpaste brands be poisoned?

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I have totally been thinking the same thing, what with the poisoned pet food and now with the glycerin problems. It just seems that China's industries are completely unregulated, and there's a lot of corner-cutting going on, which is bound to happen in any profit-driven, unsupervised enterprise.

I know we don't ingest enough of the toothpaste to actually die from the diethylene glycol, but short of killing its victims, apparently the poison can cause irreversible permanent health problems such as paralysis. Ack! Not to mention that diethylene glycol is deadly because it causes kidney failure, so could the minute amounts that might be in toothpaste be enough to cause a slow kidney failure over the years?

Isn't anyone else freaking out over this?

...is there a brand list out for this yet?? I'm going to be using plain ole bs until there's more info available on this...

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Well, so far the only brands of toothpaste being recalled are brands that were made in China (but sold here):

Cooldent Fluoride, Cooldent Spearmint, Cooldent ICE, Dr. Cool, Superdent, Clean Rite, Oralmax Extreme, Oral Bright, Bright Max, and ShiR Fresh Mint.

This is according to an article in the New York Times from June 2, 2007:

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I'm worried about other U.S. brands of toothpaste because glycerin, which in some cases has turned out to really be diethylene glycol, is a common toothpaste ingredient that toothpaste manufacturers might very well be importing from China.

I'd also like to know what brands might be glycerin free. Even my Weleda toothpaste has it (even the children's)

My teeth are very sensitive, so I can't use baking soda. Any other ideas?

I've heard of tooth powders and tooth soaps but haven't tried any.

On my local news they talked about fake Colgate; they type my DH uses!:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,282036,00.html

WASHINGTON - Colgate-Palmolive Co. (CL) on Thursday said counterfeit "Colgate" toothpaste that may contain a toxic chemical had been found in discount stores in four U.S. states.

"There are indications that this product does not contain fluoride and may contain diethylene glycol," the company said in a statement.

Colgate-Palmolive said it does not use, nor has ever used, diethylene glycol as an ingredient in its toothpaste anywhere in the world. The chemical, known as DEG and sometimes illegally used as an inexpensive sweetener and thickening agent, is commonly found in solvents and antifreeze.

The Colgate-Palmolive announcement comes less than two weeks after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers to avoid any toothpaste made in China after inspectors found DEG in tubes sold at two stores.

The health regulator also issued an import alert, with the aim of preventing all toothpaste from three companies in China that make the brands found to contain DEG from entering the United States.

Colgate-Palmolive said the counterfeit toothpaste was found in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. It can be recognized because it is labeled as being manufactured in South Africa, and the company does not import toothpaste to the United States from South Africa.

The packaging also contains several misspellings, Colgate said, adding that it was working closely with the FDA to help identify those responsible for the counterfeit product.

DEG-contaminated toothpaste has also been seized in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Panama and Nicaragua. It was found in cough syrup in Panama that led to the deaths of at least 100 people last year.

The FDA issued its alert about Chinese toothpaste after seizing a batch of Cooldent found to contain 3 percent DEG. Inspectors found the toothpaste at a Dollar Plus store in Miami and at a store called Todo a Peso in Puerto Rico.

Brands seized earlier included Cooldent, Clean Rite and Oralmax that are usually found at discount retailers such as so-called dollar stores, the agency said.

The FDA identified products by Goldcredit International Enterprises Ltd., Goldcredit International Trading Co. Ltd., and Suzhou City Jinmao Daily Chemicals Co. Ltd as containing DEG.

Goldcredit International Enterprises is a unit of JiangsuXingda Stationery Group, a manufacturer of glue and office supplies. Suzhou City Jinmao Daily Chemicals also makes soap and pet products.

The FDA on June 8 said it was not aware of any U.S. reports of poisonings from DEG-tainted toothpaste, but said the chemical has a "low but meaningful risk of toxicity and injury," especially to children and people with kidney or liver disease.

Colgate, which also makes dish soap and pet food, was minimally impacted earlier this year when it recalled two products manufactured by a Canadian company whose goods were found to contain contaminated wheat gluten imported from China, blamed for the deaths of at least 14 pets.

True glycerin is such a non issue for health. Glycerin is naturally in a lot of things, like in soaps, and even in fruits in and veggies. What miffs me about threads like this is about the unnecessary panic and misinformation that is spread by non-scientific people, myself included.

The stuff that is poisonous is a counterfeit glycerin, which means it is probably chemically similar in looks, but isn't anything like glycerin in properties. True glycerin is nontoxic. Calling glycerin antifreeze is just plain silly. It's not even the same chemical compound, firstly, and secondly, there are several different chemical compositions/structures and dilutions used for different things that make products drastically different from each other. It's the same ridiculous argument some internet sites have that say SLS is horrific because 'not only is it in shampoo, it's used to degrease oil from garages!!!!U*$(!!!!!"

OK - SLS in a DIFFERENT formulation, strength, and chemical composition can degrease garages. What makes you think that same formulation is in shampoos? That's just plain dumb. The pH difference alone with commercial detergents versus personal products is completely different. If you used industrial cleaners or formulations on your body you wouldn't have any tissue left.

Same goes for your beloved Borax or washing soda and things like that. "OH, but it's NATURAL!" Yes - but the pH is high and they DO use borax for commercial uses and still has different formulations for commercial use. Washing soda is similar to baking soda in chemical composition, but it's not quite the same. Do we use borax or washing soda to sit there and scrub our faces? No.

I'm no scientist, but just doing a plain wikipedia search says glycerin's chemical composition is: HOCH2CH(OH)CH2OH, while Diethylene glycol's formula is HO-CH2-CH2-O-CH2-CH2-OH.

It's not the same thing.

"But Spazzy, they look so similar." Yeah. But consider this: CO an CO2 look a helluva lot similar too, but one is carbon monoxide (which is fatal) and CO2 is carbon dioxide, which is a harmless byproduct of normal breathing and plants use CO2 for their respiratory processes and spit back oxygen again.

It's because of common misconceptions like this that people freak out about ordinary, regular ingredients, and make no mistake, companies WILL profit out of misinformation and public perception. Remember that perception is reality, it doesn't even matter what the truth is usually.

So I beg of you. Ask intelligent questions, give intelligent answers, but don't put bad info out there. There's enough misinformation on cyberspace!

Here's a good link from Tom's of Maine trying to point out the difference. Glycerin is not bad - but lately, some companies illegally tamper with the formulation to include diethylene glycol.

http://www.tomsofmaine.com/toms/ifs/glycerin.asp

Until then, stick to name brand, hopefully US regulated companies - it's looking like only shitty no-name brands or international brands are having issues.

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I think our concern is where the glycerin comes from. If a US manufacturer imports it from China, and it's the tainted version, then buying a US product means nothing.

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If you happen to have links saved on that, I'd love to see them! We just found a new toothpaste a couple months ago and it is the best toothpaste I've ever used, but I just read it contains vegetable derived glycerin.

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This reminds me of this website about the hazards of dihydrogen monoxide.

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: Uh...where do I begin with your post? It strikes me as inflammatory and insulting. Please go back and read the posts and the linked article more carefully. Let me reiterate my points so that there's no confusion:

This thread is NOT about glycerin being bad. I have no problem with glycerin. I know that it is an innocuous substance. I am NOT calling glycerin "antifreeze."

This thread is about how counterfeit glycerin from China is finding its way into all sorts of medicines and cosmetics all around the world. This counterfeit glycerin is labeled "glycerin" but it turns out that it's really diethylene glycol, which is poisonous. Chinese distributors of glycerin substitute diethylene glycol because it tastes and looks like glycerin, but it's a lot cheaper for them to obtain.

Therefore, we are worried about the possibility of US toothpaste manufacturers using imported "glycerin" from China.

I hope this clears up any lingering confusion.