Toothpaste?!? What WON'T these people poison? I think it's time to cut off all imports from China.

I believe that we should reciprocate the action. Maybe the Chinese would stop trying to posion us if we poison them. J/K
This is getting kinda ridiculous.

Here's another nice NYT that explains how one dies slowly and painfully from this stuff. F China.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/world/americas/06poison....

It seems like China is launching some new form of attack, simply poison the westerners...

I'm not worried about toothpaste. You use so little, and swallow even less, that you aren't going to be at risk from any diethylene glycol in it.

What I am worried about is how many other ingredients are being substituted in other foods?

And not just food. If they'll allow diethylene glycol to be labeled as glycerine, what else will they let slide to make a quick buck?

That high-strength steel you bought? Yeah, it's not all that strong. Hope your building doesn't collapse.

That nice set of knives? We put lead in them to stretch the steel supply out a bit more.

Speaking of lead, do you remember that chalk recall from a couple years ago? Chalk from China had lead in it. The kind kids use to draw on the sidewalk.

It wouldn't take much for someone to start a moral panic that "Made in China" = "DEATH".

Conspiracy theorist says:

Conservatives planted this in order to seal our borders from outside nations and invoke Nationalist zeal.

Not a bad thought. Bring those manufacturing jobs back already. I'll pay more for products made stateside that won't kill me.

I KNEW I should have been suspicious when their flavors were Artic Cool, Spearmint, and Toxic Blue.

I'll pay more for products made stateside that won't kill me.

I would too but people who shop at Wal-Mart won't. They only care about "low, low prices" no matter what the consequences.

I'm afraid that the FDA may be overlooking a less obvious source of this problem. While I don't think that we'll see off-brand Chinese toothpastes sitting next to Crest at Walgreens, I am afraid that it will show up in some secondary areas such as the "dollar" stores that are popping up everywhere.

Another place that these may end up is in the prepackaged "survival kits" that airlines have. I recently was stranded by Northwest in MSP and, after much groveling was issued a "survival kit" that included a tube of Chinese made "SUNTAR" toothpaste; a name that accurately described its taste. It also included an XXL t-shirt with a tire mark from a forklift across it.

You know for a communist country they've really got capitalisim by the balls.

a more costly sugar flavoring? I have this image in my head of brushing your teeth with pure sugar.

That CAN NOT be good for your gums...

Either way we are screwed.

Chinese capitolism is the cliche libertarian dream: the market reputation will take care of things... HA

A better question should be:

"why is Chinese toothpaste sold in U.S. at the first place?"

Are the Chinese known for their superior oral hygienes products? or American companies just want to cut cost by moving their production to China? If so, shouldn't the toothpaste companies themselves should be held accountable as well?

http://www.tian.cc/

Is this the same stuff that kills pets and animals who drink from the sweet-tasting antifreeze puddles under your broken radiator hose?

@nytmare: Correct.

wow finally organizations are learning to cover their asses when they import things from a lower grade manufacturer. Yeah this Chinese company shouldn't be using Diethylene Glycol, but any company importing the material(s) should not just blindly trust the label! Test it or assume the worst.

You get what you pay for.

@mopar_man: They'll care once people start dying.

@Tian:

I agree with you. Some company making a profit in US imported these products.

When a company manufactures a product, they perform Quality control. However, when they import a product -> they pass off that step. Either they skip the inspection totally or they make the govenernment agencies do inspection. Regardless of it, they pocket the profit and the taxpayers will be suffering because of the lack of funds for this.

We also have to remember that China is starting to learn things. they do not really know many standards that we have. there can be standards, but who really reads them from the books and who regulates them. Guess what, most likely nobody. These new starting companies are like kids, they need to know what is good and what is not good.

"Either way we are screwed."
Oh, but we're not, really. Why do we need sweetener in toothpaste at all? The American population (which I'm part of - I'm not slagging some other country) as a whole needs to grow up and stop expecting crap like toothpaste to be a taste delight. It's to clean your friggin teeth, not to thrill your tastebuds. But that's a much larger topic, so I digress. To the point, use a natural brand like Tom's or Trader Joe's which don't have sweeteners (as well as other harmful crap) and taste just fine or better.

Of course, we'll probably soon find out the Chinese have poisoned our peppermint too.. o.O

@nytmare:

Not quite. The stuff in antifreeze is ethylene glycol ( HO-CH2-CH2-OH ). The stuff in the toothpaste is diethylene glycol ( HO-CH2-CH2-O-CH2-CH2-OH ).

We also have to remember that China is starting to learn things. they do not really know many standards that we have. there can be standards, but who really reads them from the books and who regulates them. Guess what, most likely nobody. These new starting companies are like kids, they need to know what is good and what is not good.

Honestly! Shame on us for not informing them that poison = bad!

@consumer_999:
This would be a fine tirade if the products in question didn't actually show up in Panama. According to the article, none of the contaminated toothpaste has turned up in the US, at least not yet.

It won't take that many more incidents like this for the Chinese to wake up. Eventually, you'll start to see more and more barriers on importation, or delays that involve inspection. Once that happens, the cost benefit of making this stuff in China will begin to diminish.

You know how everyone always complains about
Plaintiff's lawyers and how the drive the prices up for consumers?

This is what happens when you have no Plaintiff's lawyers involved suing companies in a country.

Be careful what you wish for.

Christ... China... Don't they get it that if you kill the consumer, capitalism does not work?

Maybe we should start sending cyanide laced shit to them.

@quantum-shaman:

That's a great (and by great, I mean horrendusly scary) article. It's insane what people are willing to do to make a little more money. The really sick thing is that in the end, the companies keep doing what they've been doing while the government and their shoddy bureaucratic methods let it happen over and over. But it's okay, as it usually only affects poor countries.

@nweaver:

Absolutely.

@Rectilinear Propagation: "It'll never happen to ME!"

... *thud*

Yeah, you're all mindreaders and know what 1 billion Chinese are thinking...

The most disturbing part to me -- if you try to ask a company where they source their ingredients (be it toothpaste, corn chips, whatever), they won't tell you. It's "proprietary". So how am I supposed to be a discerning consumer and avoid the antifreeze toothpaste?