Breaking: Ersatz Colgate toothpaste in the United States might contain DEG. And I just bought a suspicious tube of toothpaste in my local dollar store in Canada.
Brush your teeth...and die! Thanks to Chinese quality controls. On the other hand, the toothy grin on the skull-and-crossbones has never looked so bright and shiny.

Chinese death exports continue to be discovered. Now it's poisonous toothpaste:
Chinese authorities are investigating whether two companies from this coastal region exported tainted toothpaste as more contaminated product, including some made for children, has turned up in Latin America.
A team of government investigators arrived here Sunday afternoon and closed the factory of the Danyang City Success Household Chemical Company, a small building housing about 30 workers in a nearby village, according to villagers and one factory worker. The government also questioned the manager of another toothpaste maker, Goldcredit International Trading, which is in Wuxi, about an hour’s drive southeast of here.
No tainted toothpaste has been found in the United States, but a spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that the agency would be taking “a hard look” at whether to issue an import alert.
The last thing the Chinese government needs is anyone taking "a hard look" at anything they ship.
After the nightmare of the pet food recall, and the discovery of poisonous cough syrop killing children in Panama, and the focus on China's horrid quality record, the discovery that something as innocuous as toothpaste could kill is almost anticlimactic.
But then it turns out that the poison was being market at children, and the interest is piqued:
Authorities in the Dominican Republic said they seized 36,000 tubes of toothpaste suspected of containing diethylene glycol, an industrial solvent and prime ingredient in some antifreeze. Included were tubes of toothpaste marketed for children with bubble gum and strawberry flavors sold under the name of “Mr. Cool Junior.”
Diethylene glycol is the same poison that the Panamanian government unwittingly mixed into cold medicine last year, killing at least 100 people. In that case, the poison falsely labeled as glycerin, a harmless syrup, originated in China, shipping records show. Diethylene glycol is generally less expensive than its chemical cousin glycerin.
Panamanian authorities said they believed the tainted toothpaste found in their country, containing up to 4.6 percent diethylene glycol, came from China.
The response from the Chinese? We didn't do it, and in any case, everyone does it:
“We didn’t do this; we didn’t make the bad stuff,” said Shi Lei, a manager at Danyang City Success. “It was probably someone else.“
But Ms. Shi and other toothpaste makers in this region said that diethylene glycol had been used in toothpaste in China for years and that producers believed it was not very harmful.
Right. Follow that up with the standard "We didn't sent it to you" line:
Indeed, the government seems to have responded quickly to reports last weekend about contaminated toothpaste. Hu Keyu, the manager at Goldcredit International, said investigators had talked to him over the weekend because his company was the first to sell and export toothpaste under the brand label Mr. Cool. But he and his staff insisted that Goldcredit never exported to Panama, and that this year the company had exported only a small amount of Mr. Cool toothpaste to Australia.
Ah, good, now the Australians have an excuse to get involved.
Mr. Hu said his company exports toothpaste, toothbrushes, glue and other goods to the United States, Europe and other regions but that his company no longer uses diethylene glycol. He said, however, that most toothpaste makers in this region use diethylene glycol because it is considered a cheap substitute for glycerin.
Mr. Hu at Goldcredit said that while he did not produce the toothpaste shipped to Panama, diethylene glycol had been used for years at very low levels in Chinese toothpaste as a glycerin substitute. “If diethylene glycol were poisonous,” he said, “all Chinese people would have been poisoned.”
Right, we don't do bad things anymore, not that it was bad to start with, and everyone else is doing it, so blame them, though we don't know what the big deal is, because it isn't bad, not that we do it. Did I mention we don't do this not-reaaly-a-bad-thing anymore?
What other goodies does Goldcredit not export anywhere?
Arts & crafts: glue stick, face paint, paint, white glue, pencil, tattoo pen and eraser
Toothbrush: we have more than 200 kinds of toothbrushes
Toothpaste: we can product many kinds of toothpastes
Wet wipe: baby wipes, cosmetic wipes, ladies' wet wipers, disinfecting wipes, anti-bacteria wipes, clean wipes, skin care wet wipes, glass wipes and bathroom wipes
Facepaint? Baby wipes?
I don't know if the economics of this works, but let's shut the doors on Chinese exports. Maybe the increase in cost of products will be compensated in three ways:

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Thank you so much for staying on this topic. I avoid items from China as much as possible. After one of your previous articles, I checked my soy sauce and it was made in China and I threw it away (unused, thankfully). I just noticed that my daughter's eyeshadows are made in China. Do you happen to know anything about items such as that? It's time that other countries band together and refuse imports from China until they can prove their products are safe.
Posted by: Barbara in Wpg. at May 22, 2007 01:40 PM
I agree with Barbara, but the dilemma resides much deeper than labeled identity of product origion.
The recalled pet foods, for instance, are labelled as Product of Canada or Made in USA. They dont identify the ingredient's origions.
This is a problem!!
Thanks You, Steve indeed for following this.
Posted by: ZiLLa at May 22, 2007 03:42 PM
From the same article a tellinhg quote:-
"Danyang City Success Household Chemical, however, said that while it did not export to Panama, it has used diethylene glycol in its toothpaste, and that the government does not have a clear regulation on how much CAN be added" (Capitals are mine)
- Nor , I bet, does it have any regulation as to how much rat poison or strychnine CAN be added .
Posted by: Rich at May 22, 2007 03:58 PM
I think your above label needs to be amended. Let's get the "food" dropped so that it says "Guaranteed free of products from China."
At least starting with the "made in China" products is a start. But just because it's not made in China doesn't mean it doesn't have components/ingredients from China.
Posted by: Reid at May 22, 2007 04:49 PM
Brush your teeth...and die!
Well, OK, as long as you're not getting hysterically over the top or anything. That's a well-known technique to get people to accept greater and greater government control over their lives, and it would be kind of funny if you used your blog to advocate even greater trade and health socialism on Canadians than they have now ... in the name of fighting communism.
DIT DIT DIT DAH DAH DIT DAH --- And now a breaking bulletin from the real world --- fluoridated toothpaste - the good ol' Canadian kind - is hazardous to your health if ingested --- DIT DAH DIT DIT DIT DAH
Toothpaste is not intended to be swallowed. Some types of toothpaste may cause nausea or diarrhea if swallowed in excess quantity. Extended consumption while the teeth are forming can result in fluorosis. This is why young children should not use toothpaste except under close supervision.
Prob'ly some of those damn Chi-coms been getting into our toothpaste factories.
Posted by: at May 22, 2007 07:10 PM
I thought it was a catchy headline. Grabs your attention.
Posted by: Steve Janke at May 22, 2007 08:22 PM
Crest products over 45 years of use have never made me sick or killed anyone. A U. S corporation coming under a cloud such as this would immediately be beset and destroyed by the media followed by plaintiff's attorneys. The EU and Japan would ban their entire product base and probably similar products from other U. S. manufacturers, e. g., BSE-infected cattle. The MSM is not tough enough on China. Being of overseas origin should not provide a "by" from criticism or repercussion.
Posted by: iowavette at May 23, 2007 08:56 AM
...I often wonder when visiting the Loonie (Dollar) stores to buy simple birthday cards, I see all the "made in china" stuff in there and wonder if...
I see lots of Crest and Colgate products there, along with Scope Mouthwash and so on. How can they sell so low?
If any Federalies are reading this, please check those stores first and let me know.
Posted by: tomax7 at May 23, 2007 11:20 PM
"Brush your teeth...and die!"
Not really sure which is more the moonbat, bolshi fellow travelers, or crackpot Randians.
Posted by: Red Lief at May 24, 2007 09:51 PM