back to article Panama spits out 'poison' Chinese toothpaste

Two brands of Chinese-made toothpastes were last week pulled from shelves in Panama after authorities discovered they contained potentially-fatal diethylene glycol, AP reports. Diethylene glycol is commonly used as a cheap substitute for glycerine, and in this case apparently to prevent the offending toothpastes from drying out …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Dan Dietzer

    They Can Still Work At Low Temperatures

    Since diethylene glycol is used in antifreeze their blood stream should be good down to -20 deg C.

  2. J

    Funny

    Panama, Haiti, Bangladesh... notice a pattern there? Why aren't they exporting/making such products to/in USA, Europe? Greedy bastards.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Diethylene glycol

    Is a very cheap way of producing a sweet taste - see Austrian wine c.1980.

  4. Eduard Coli

    Poison for a reason?

    Considering this and to a lesser extent the rat poison in wheat gluten from China that is still killing pets in the US how come no one has come forward with a temporary ban on food products from the workers paradise?

    I'm sure if I look on shelves in the US at cheap toothpaste from China we'll see diethylene glycol here too.

    The media monopoly in the US seems to take great pains to minimise any neand not report anything bad about goods coming from China or the disparities of Yankee/Chinese trade.

    I always thought it odd that the US, billed as "the breadbasket of the world" has to import wheat gluten from or all places China.

  5. Mike Morgan

    No recalls

    There are no recalls because there would be little food left on the shelves. I was looking at the product of what country labels on the canned goods the other day and guess what, many fruits, some vegetables, almost any canned meat, or seafood are all products of China. I am even more afraid to by caned food than I am of the questionable clean genetically modified imported from some other country fresh food. With the government regulators in bed with the mega food corporations there is no safe food left in the good old USA. Fortunately, I live in a smaller rural town and can get most of my food locally grown so at least I can talk to the people producing it and have some idea as to its quality. The produce is seasonal but much safer than the store bought variety. Home canning and a large chest freezer is the way to go.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    OK is it just me?

    or is anybody else seeing a growing pattern of ineptitude coming from China? Sure, they're a great resource of cheap labor, at least 40% of the net's security problems, the largest communist dictatorship in the world that censors everything to keep its citizens subjugated for all eternity, but hey, what's the big deal over a few life threatening illnesses or deaths caused by joe wang in China, as long as Walmart gets product to the masses for a penny or two cheaper?

    I refuse to buy anything made in China, unless there IS no other alternative, because their manufacturing base BLOWS!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    As Monty Python would put it

    I like Chinese,

    They only come upto your knees,

    But they're cute, and they're cudly,

    And they're ready to please...

    Let's not level every attack at China. Sure they have problems but which nation doesn't? There are numerous cases around the world of dodgy ingredients being put into public-foodstuffs and comsumables. Look at the issues with the cancer causing food-colourant from India.

    I watched a program last night about food standards in the big supermarket chains here in the UK. It was nuts. The conditions in which food is packaged and served to us in the UK is shocking. We have to worry less about China's toothpaste and more about illness caused through dodgy seafood and chicken storage/hygiene, the latter of which really can kill.

    Said my little bit. Now back to the Flying Circus..

  8. Register Reader

    Nuts

    "I watched a program last night about food standards in the big supermarket chains here in the UK. It was nuts. The conditions in which food is packaged and served to us in the UK is shocking."

    I guess that's why everything says "may contain traces of nuts" on the packaging?

This topic is closed for new posts.