A customer selects toothpaste after the U.S. government stopped all imports of Chinese toothpaste. Some products sold in Australia, the Dominican Republic and Panama contained a poisonous chemical. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Harmful Ingredients Found in Dog Food, Toothpaste
Chinese Imports Banned

by Linda Hanig
What do pet food and toothpaste have in common? Some brands of both have been found to contain unsafe ingredients from China. In other countries people have died from eating food with these ingredients. North American dogs and cats became sick or died.
In May, the federal governmentÕs Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stopped imports of all Chinese toothpaste. In March, Menu Foods recalled about 100 brands of Òcuts and gravyÓ style pet food. The company received more than 8,000 reports from pet owners that their dogs or cats became ill after eating this food.

Antifreeze ingredient in toothpaste
The toothpaste in question contained a poisonous chemical called diethylene glycol (DEG). This is used in antifreeze and brake fluid. The FDA advised throwing out all toothpaste made in China.
ÒIt does not belong in toothpaste,Ó said Deborah M. Autor of the FDA.
The FDA found DEG in toothpastes sold at bargain stores. This chemical was in toothpastes such as Cooldent Fluoride, Cooldent Spearmint, Cooldent ICE and Shir Fresh Mint Fluoride Paste. These were found at a Dollar Plus store in Miami and a Todo A Peso store in Puerto Rico. The FDA is testing all types of Chinese toothpastes to make sure that each is free of DEG.

China claims low levels not harmful
On the website of ChinaÕs General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine was a statement that low levels of DEG have been deemed safe, and DEG does not build up in the body or cause cancer or deformities. Autor of the FDA said no amount of DEG should be in anything people or animals put in their mouths.
As of June 1, the FDA was not aware of any deaths from Chinese toothpaste. Toothpaste is not meant to be eaten. But the FDA was concerned about the effects of continued use of toothpaste with DEG. It was also concerned about the effects on children and on people with kidney or liver disease.
DEG was used in the toothpastes instead of glycerin. Glycerin is commonly used as a sweetener. DEG costs less than glycerin.

DEG, melamine blamed for deaths
Since October, the chemical was blamed for 51 deaths in Panama. People took cough syrup and other medications containing DEG. A shipment from China had been labeled as glycerin. It was DEG. From 1990 to 1998 in other countries, DEG was found in various medications. Hundreds of people died.
Melamine was the unsafe chemical in dog and cat foods. It was found in the wheat gluten used to thicken wet-style pet foods. Melamine is used to make plastic and fertilizer. A company in China supplied the wheat gluten.
Some argued that the food with melamine caused kidney failure in pets. Others questioned if older pets might have already had an unnoticed kidney condition that melamine made worse. As of March 24, pet owners told Menu Foods that four cats and one dog had died.

Companies recall products
After Menu Foods recalled these foods, HillÕs Pet Nutrition and Nestle Purina PetCare Co. recalled certain styles of pet food.
ÒThis is one of the largest recalls in history but still represents less than 1 percent of pet foods in the market,Ó said Stephan F. Sundlof. He is director of the FDAÕs Center for Veterinary Medicine.
Other food products from China have been banned. They included frozen eel laced with drugs, juice with unsafe color additives and monkfish that was really toxic puffer fish.
At the end of May, Chinese and U.S. officials discussed the food safety problems during trade talks in Washington, D.C.