Word: glycol
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...warm Friday afternoon in June, about 50,000 boxes of toothpaste got their last squeeze inside an industrial trash compactor in Homestead, Fla. They were yanked from the shelves of discount stores and bathroom cabinets after a nationwide recall warned that the toothpaste contained a chemical, diethylene glycol, that could lead to kidney failure. Francisco Botta, who distributed the toothpaste for his family's wholesale business in Miami, stocked his warehouse bathroom with the stuff. "I used it every day," he says. "I told everybody to stop...
...instead the FDA saves its fire for the high-risk goods that have caused health problems. That's what happened in early June with Chinese-made toothpaste. Following 100 deaths in Panama linked to cough syrup containing diethylene glycol (the ingredient had been mislabeled as glycerin, which is harmless), the FDA issued an import alert on all toothpaste made in China, tested the tubes it could find for the toxin and recalled the questionable batches. "Obviously it's not possible for us to test every product that is coming in to make sure it's meeting every standard we have...
...about what we do. Take Mr. Clean's Ultra All Purpose Cleaner, with ingredients like "surfactant (unspecified)." With another Mr. Clean ingredient, the MSDS informed me that there is "no information about the [product's] potential for carcinogenicity." I was able to follow the trail of one chemical, diethylene glycol monobutyl ether, which evidently appears in everything from brake fluid to hair dye. Although the MSDS measures workplace exposure, which can be far greater than the amount one would encounter at home, the Hazardous Substances Data Bank toxnet.nlm.nih.gov warned that "results of limited repeated dose oral work reported suggests that...
...contained less of the active ingredient than was specified on the label. Others were past their expiration date. Some were filled with inert lactose or powdered chalk. Still others were poison. In 1990 more than 100 Nigerian children died from a painkiller that had been made with toxic ethylene glycol instead of propylene glycol. In 2003 phony adrenaline led to the deaths of three children undergoing surgery in the city of Enugu. Akunyili's sister Vivian, a diabetic, died in 1988, a victim of fake insulin...
...products in attempts to increase their profits. Now some Austrian vintners have found a method for doctoring plonk that is not only unorthodox but potentially lethal. Last week the Austrian government announced it had impounded more than 1 million gal. of white wine that had been adulterated with diethylene glycol, a chemical used in making aircraft antifreeze that can be fatal if swallowed...