Don't brush your teeth!!! ...yet!

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Mirador

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Apr 15, 2004
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Taday's Listin Diario article informs the public about the introduction of a toothpaste that contains a toxic substance, via Panama, where a product with the ingredient already has caused over 100 deaths.

The shipment entered the country declared as animal feed, during different dates, through the ports of Haina and Caucedo, on the following ships: Cala Palmira 197, Orso V-79, Uni Corona, Blue Star, Cala Palmira 192, Uni Concord, Cala Palmira, Cala Palmira V-188 y Uni Corona 0754-217.

The article goes on to say that Customs (Direcci?n General de Aduanas (DGA)), the health authorities ( Secretar?a de Salud P?blica) and the military (Fuerzas Armadas) are tracing the whereabouts of the containers and merchandise.

The toxic substance is diethylene glycol. For those unfamiliar with chemistry, its industrial use, including pharmacological, you should know that diethylene glycol is found in many topical products, including sunblock lotions. As a matter of fact diethylene glycol (DEG) is one of the most commonly used chemicals in the world and it is contained as an ingredient in literally thousands of products.
 
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juanita

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Apr 22, 2004
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Thanks for the info Mirador! I sent the link to all my contacts; it?s not something we would buy but our muchachas de servicio might!
 
M

Mirador

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Oh lord please don't make me be misunderstood....

I'm just a soul whose intentions are good....;-)

Actually, my post is to warn that diethylene glycol in toothpaste is innocuous. I suspect the actual reason for tracing the container loads of "toothpaste" is because whatever is them is contraband...
 
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Chris

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Oct 21, 2002
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www.caribbetech.com
No Mirador, this is bad stuff. Somewhere in the 80's already there was a scandal in Austria (if memory serves .. and I cannot remember the town), where they sweetened their wine with diethylene glycol - and killed off a stack of people and a whole wine crop.

They put this stuff in antifreeze you know.
 
M

Mirador

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Juanita, thanks for the links. My confusion stems from the fact that I'm a patent translator, and I remember translating a toothpaste (dentrifice) patent which among its claims includes the use of diethylene glycol. By the way, the patent was approved by the US Patent Office (I cannot provide additional information because I'm bound by non-disclosure agreements). Also, I'm a habitual label reader, and I remember diethylene glycol listed in many skin lotions, including Banana Boat and similar brands of sunblock lotions.
 
M

Mirador

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aegap said:
Freaking Chinese are out poison the entire world.
Click to expand...


I suspect it's more of a campaign to undermine Chinese exports.

If you want to have some fun, check the following CosmeticsDataBase, and find out the names (synonyms) used to hide the toxic ingredient diethylene glycol, plus the hundreds of cosmetic products currently on the market that use it, most of them produced in the U.S. and Europe.
 
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aegap

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Mar 19, 2005
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I could tell you of many other widely chemicals that are widely used in cosmetic products (as well as other products one puts in ones skin_ , but can easily poison you really bad (even potentially kill you) if put in you mouth, where chances are you'll ingest a significant amount. The amount is a key factor too.

Here's an example: If a children, say age six, puts as much of your regular deoderant in his mouth daily as he does regular tooth paste, he probably wouldn't last three days without getting extremely sick ..I hazard to guess he can easily poison himself fatally within a week. Acne cream would probably put him out within four days.
 
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aegap

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interesting factbite

Diethylene glycol has been responsible for a number of mass poisonings.
..

In recent years, deaths from medicines adulterated with diethylene glycol have been reported from South Africa, India, Nigeria, Argentina, Haiti, and Panama. . In Haiti in 1996, 85 children died due to glycerine contaminated with diethylene glycol in a paracetamol syrup produced by Pharval Laboratories, a Haitian company, which did not use standard quality assurance procedures to verify the purity of the glycerine (which was supplied by a Ductch company, Vos, from a manufacturer in China, but the point of contamination with DEG was never determined).<SUP class=reference id=_ref-2>[3]</SUP>

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