Another Tainted Product - US FDA IS Now Checking Toothpate Imports From China

Another Tainted Product - US FDA IS Now Checking Toothpate Imports From China

www.cnn.com

U.S. health officials are beginning to check all shipments of toothpaste coming from China, following reports of tainted products in other countries, a government spokesman said Wednesday.

The Food and Drug Administration has no evidence that contaminated toothpaste has made its way into the United States but is taking the step as a precaution, agency spokesman Doug Arbesfeld said.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 24-5-2007 by UM_Gazz]

Yet another tainted product coming from China. How is it that suddenly there are this many tainted products coming from China in such a short amount of time? Is it a coincidence? I for one am not a big believer in coincidences. How about you?

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Do you think that maybe this stuff is done intentionally? Maybe to help take down the Chinese market?

Originally posted by closettrekkie
Do you think that maybe this stuff is done intentionally? Maybe to help take down the Chinese market?

I hate to think that it is done intentionally, but the thought is certainly crossing my mind. How could this not be intentional, at least to some degree?

I guess that never crossed my mind. I just figured it was because their standards are lower and it just doesn't strike me as the most sanitary country in the world. But I guess engine coolant has nothing to do with sanitization. Maybe a machine was leaking it in the manufacturing process?

I sure hate to think someone would do that intentionally, but you never know. I know a lot of people who would love to see the Chinese market come to a screeching halt.

I think it's just a function of the Chinese business people trying to maximize profits. In all these cases I believe a cheaper chemical with a similar sounding name was substituted without regard to whether it would be a safe alternative.

I'm sure this is going to be a major drag on China's exports of food and health care products. I imagine China's inspection and oversight processes are not very advanced.

Or its a load of rubbish , and pure propaganda to try and get the importers to buy elsewhere. economic manipulation is another angle to a war.

Originally posted by Harlequin
Or its a load of rubbish , and pure propaganda to try and get the importers to buy elsewhere. economic manipulation is another angle to a war.

Perhaps. I don't know. What I do know is that alot of pets really did die, so I have to lean in the direction that it's not rubbish.

Originally posted by closettrekkie
But I guess engine coolant has nothing to do with sanitization. Maybe a machine was leaking it in the manufacturing process?

First off I do think the companies involved should look elsewhere for there manufacturing needs.
As to the leaking engine coolant. Any sorts of coolants, oils, grease, ect. that is being used with the manufacturing of foods needs to be non toxic. So if engine coolant was to blame then the wrong type of coolant is being used.

Well, maybe they are cutting corners to make bigger rpofits.

In the previously reported case, a Chinese factory not certified to make pharmaceutical ingredients sold 46 barrels of syrup containing diethylene glycol that had been falsely labeled as 99.5 percent pure glycerin. That syrup passed through several trading companies before ending up in Panama, where it was mixed it into 260,000 bottles of cold medicine.

At least 100 people died as a direct result, according to Dimas Guevara, a Panamanian prosecutor who is leading the investigation into the deaths.

Over the years, counterfeiters have found it financially advantageous to substitute diethylene glycol, a sweet-tasting syrup, for its chemical cousin glycerin, which is usually much more expensive.

www.iht.com...


I think it would be to our advantage to simplfy our lives and use as few highly manufactured foods and products as possible.
At our house, we have not used toothpaste in years.
My hygenist marvels at how little tartar I know have and how much cleaner my teeth are prior to my professional cleanings.
Toothpaste substitutes: baking soda. salt (although somewhat abrasive, but helps disinfect) and/or mouthwash.

If these things keep happening foreign firms will stop buying from China because "Made In China" will be regarded as taking a risk. And if the US starts putting tariffs on Chinese made goods, which could happen with the next president [depending who it is], it will really screw things up (which would probably be a good thing in the long run).

Maybe there should be a label on a can of tuna that says.

Dolphin and Chinese free

Ok this strays slightly off-topic but please bear with me because it could very well be linked to this story.

Just a few days ago, I did some research on the most toxic toothpaste products that are listed in the cosmetic safety database.

This database rates cosmetic and personal care products on a scale from 0-10 with 10 being the most toxic. There was a long list of toothpaste products that had scores between 7 and 10. I have a list of them here, but I wanted to find out if these products were imported or not. Here is the list I obtained from the database a few days ago that have the worse scores:

Score: 8 out of 10 (Bad Scores)
Rembrandt Dazzling White, Mint
Rembrandt Plus Premium Whitening Toothpaste with Peroxide, Fresh Mint
Rembrandt Plus Peroxide Toothpaste, Wintergreen Flavor
Rembrandt Dazzling White, Original
Rembrandt Plus Peroxide Toothpaste
Rembrandt Extra Whitening Toothpaste Formulated For Canker Sore Sufferers
Rembrandt Toothpaste, Canker Sore, Fresh Mint
Oral-B Stages Power Rangers (Power Fruit Burst Toothpaste)
Marvis Toothpaste (Ginger Mint, Aquatic Mint, Jasmin Mint)
Colgate 12 Hour Multi Protection Total Toothpaste
Colgate Total Plus Whitening Toothpaste
Colgate Total Plus&Whitening Toothpaste (Gel)
Colgate Total Plus&Whitening Toothpaste (Paste)
Sensodyne Anticavity Toothpaste for Sensitive Teeth with Baking Soda

Score: 7 out of 10 (Bad Scores)
Crest Kids Cavity Protection Fluoride Anticavity Toothpaste
Arm & Hammer Enamel Care Daily Fluoride Anti-Cavity Mint Toothpaste, Natural Whitening
Tom's of Maine Toothpaste Cinnamint
Listerine Essential Care Toothpaste, Powerful Mint Gel
Colgate Total Anticavity Fluoride/Antigingivitis Toothpaste
Oral-B Stages Toothpaste, Disney Princess Pink Bubble Gum
Mentadent Fluoride Toothpaste Advanced Cleaning with Breath Freshening
Arm & Hammer Complete Care Daily Fluoride Mint Toothpaste (Extra Whitening)
Crest Baking Soda & Peroxide Whitening with Tartar Protection Fluoride Anticavity Toothpaste

When I go back to the database and look again, they're not listed. The only items that are showing up are the ones with a score of 6 or lower (which are considered safer than the list above but are still not completely safe).

I sent them a message to ask about the missing items but I don't expect to hear back from them right away.

Maybe someone else can go check it out and see if they can view any of the toothpaste products with a score higher than 6 (you can sort the list by score).

Here is the link to the website:
www.cosmeticdatabase.com...

Here is the link directly to the toothpaste listings:
www.cosmeticdatabase.com...

Originally posted by lombozo
I hate to think that it is done intentionally, but the thought is certainly crossing my mind. How could this not be intentional, at least to some degree?

The pet food poisoning was intentional. Here is a link to one of the news stories:

Pet Food Poison May Have Been Intentional

For the first time, investigators are saying the chemical that has sickened and killed pets in the United States may have been intentionally added to pet food ingredients by Chinese producers.

Food and Drug Administration investigators say the Chinese companies may have spiked products with the chemical melamine so that they would appear, in tests, to have more value as protein products.

If you said happens, it will be the most pitiful thing between us and China, the bad toothpaste was just an individual case than a universal phenomenon. China has sacrificed too much to provide the world cheaper commodities, including envirmont, resources, labors etc I think China wont do this intentionally. Have you even heard the toxic Colgate toothpaste event happened during Western world?Would anyone dare to say it is intentional action?

annestacey，thank you for your quick response. frankly i am a Chinese living in china now, the most of the brands i am not familiar except Crest Oral-b and Colgate. the last three are very popular in Chinese suppermarkets, and they are all Chinese made i never heard they plagued with quality problem in our market. From my knowledge, FDA has very strict rules over the food or drug's market entrance permission, how is gonna be happened so many nonconformed products flow into markets? Or maybe the Chinese mandatory sanitary requirements are far lower than Western standards?

THATS IT!!! I am never brushing my tooth again.

Originally posted by lombozoI hate to think that it is done intentionally, but the thought is certainly crossing my mind. How could this not be intentional, at least to some degree?

It has to do with the lack of controls and the poor industrialization in China. They're eager for the world to buy their goods, but they're not well capitalized. So they take short cuts.

Have you ever heard complaints about a "low bid contractor" on projects using material that won't hold up to the needs and doing shoddy work? That's exactly what we're seeing -- shoddy products, bad workmanship.

China is destroying their own market.

Originally posted by dudu_bear
annestacey，thank you for your quick response. frankly i am a Chinese living in china now, the most of the brands i am not familiar except Crest Oral-b and Colgate. the last three are very popular in Chinese suppermarkets, and they are all Chinese made i never heard they plagued with quality problem in our market. From my knowledge, FDA has very strict rules over the food or drug's market entrance permission, how is gonna be happened so many nonconformed products flow into markets? Or maybe the Chinese mandatory sanitary requirements are far lower than Western standards?

What you need to understand is the FDA may control food and pharmaceutical items (which is really just a scam but that's a different story), but they do not control ingredients that go into cosmetic or personal care products, so the companies can put whatever they want into them. Here is a statement from the cosmetic safety database website:

The unfortunate reality is that the government does not currently require health studies or pre-market testing for these products before they are sold. According to the FDA's Office of Cosmetics and Colors,

"FDA cannot require companies to do safety testing of their cosmetic products before manufacturing,"
and

"...a cosmetic manufacturer may use almost any raw material as a cosmetic ingredient and market the product without an approval from FDA." (FDA 1995)

The Cosmetics Ingredients Review (CIR), the industry's self-policing safety panel, falls far short of compensating for the lack of FDA oversight. An EWG analysis found that in its 30-year history, the CIR has reviewed the safety of just 13% of the 10,500 ingredients used in personal care products. FDA does no systematic reviews of safety. That means that nearly 90% of ingredients used in personal care products have not been evaluated for safety by any publicly accountable institution. And as people apply an average of 126 unique ingredients on their skin daily, these chemicals are raising concerns, for their potential impacts to human health and to the environment.

Source: www.cosmeticdatabase.com...

Originally posted by grover
THATS IT!!! I am never brushing my tooth again.

Too funny grover.

One important thing to realize is that none of these products are necessary for us to use. There are plenty of natural products that work better, are safer and cheaper. In my opinion, this is an easy decision to stop using them.

I want to take the opportunity again to recommend everyone to check out Mike Adams' website at www.newstarget.com. Mike exposes this information on a daily basis with his articles and interviews. Plus, if you sign up to receive his newsletters, you can download a ton of his PDF books for free. This is the most informative website I have ever come across and the information he provides is invaluable.

NewsTarget: www.newstarget.com...