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Beware The Chinese Tooth Fairy
The Chinese toothpaste scare that has forced the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to scramble to check imports of dentifrice from the People's Republic, has now spread to Canada.
The culprit is 'Mr Cool Children's Toothpaste'. The problem is that Mr Cool is not cool. The brand has been branded as toxic by Canada's federal department of health.
According to a report from Associated Press, China has rejected a US warning to American comsumers to avoid Chinese toothpaste.
The FDA says some of it is poisonous. Beijing says the finding is "unscientific, irresponsible and contradictory".
Australia, Panama and the Dominican Republic have recalled thousands of tubes of Chinese-made toothpaste in recent months because of fears that certain products contained dangerous levels of diethylene glycol, a toxin.
EURSOC has found that its search engine rankings have soared based on searches for Chinese Toothpaste, Chinese poisoned toothpaste and so on. Are we witnessing the beginning of one of those regular consumer hysterias, rather like warnings that certain companies are involved in Satanism? Or is there some truth in the fears, which threaten the Chinese industry as a whole, rather like the Austrian de-icer in wine scare in the 1980s?
Either way, it seems that few will be buying Chinese toothpaste in a hurry. Industrial terrorism? An attack by a madman with a grudge? The reports seem widespread.
In Panama, Mr Cool and another Beijing brand, Excel, have been labelled "killer toothpaste" after authorities alleged that 51 people, some children, died last year as a result of putting a dangerous substance in their mouth.
Some historical and anthropological research has indicated that something similar to modern toothpaste was invented in China around 500 B.C.
There is no evidence that it killed anyone. How times change.
