Zero Out of Five Dentists Recommend Poison Toothpaste

Another Deadly Chinese Import Discovered

Here’s the worst idea I’ve heard in a long time – poison toothpaste.

Panamanian officials recently discovered thousands of tubes of poisonous toothpaste. The announcement of their discovery has prompted scares in other countries, with an Australian recall already announced.

There have been no confirmed deaths due to the toxic toothpaste; Panamanian authorities reported that most who tried it found it tasted funny and spit it out.

However, the toxin is a confirmed killer that’s been making all kinds of headlines recently: diethylene glycol, an ingredient found in antifreeze. At least 100 Panamanians died last year from ingesting contaminated cough syrup. It’s also the same toxin that caused the recent pet food scare in the US.

In all these cases, the tainted ingredients have been traced back to China. It appears that diethylene glycol was sold as glycerin, an additive in many products. Diethylene glycol has the same slippery, gel-like consistency as glycerin, making the change impossible to detect without testing. Diethylene glycol has the advantage of being cheaper to produce, but the considerable disadvantage of being poisonous.