30418: Raber (comment) Should Haitians be on the lookout? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: PM Raber <raber88@zoominternet.net>


Knowing that many products sold in Haiti come from the Dominican, knowing many 
children in Haiti died in 1995 from the same poison, knowing that Haiti can be 
a dumping ground for unwanted products, spread the word to be on guard. Adult 
usually do no swallow toothpaste but many children do.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/19/world/americas/19panama.html

May 19, 2007

Poisoned Toothpaste in Panama Is Believed to Be From China
By WALT BOGDANICH and RENWICK McLEAN

Diethylene glycol, a poisonous ingredient in some antifreeze, has been found in 
6,000 tubes of toothpaste in Panama, and customs officials there said yesterday 
that the product appeared to have originated in China.

“Our preliminary information is that it came from China, but we don’t know that 
with certainty yet,” said Daniel Delgado Diamante, Panama’s director of 
customs. “We are still checking all the possible imports to see if there could 
be other shipments.”

Some of the toothpaste, which arrived several months ago in the free trade zone 
next to the Panama Canal, was re-exported to the Dominican Republic in seven 
shipments, customs officials said. A newspaper in Australia reported yesterday 
that one brand of the toothpaste had been found on supermarket shelves there 
and had been recalled.

Diethylene glycol is the same poison that the Panamanian government 
inadvertently mixed into cold medicine last year, killing at least 100 people. 
Records show that in that episode the poison, falsely labeled as glycerin, a 
harmless syrup, also originated in China.

There is no evidence that the tainted toothpaste is in the United States, 
according to American government officials.

Panamanian health officials said diethylene glycol had been found in two brands 
of toothpaste, labeled in English as Excel and Mr. Cool. The tubes contained 
diethylene glycol concentrations of between 1.7 percent and 4.6 percent, said 
Luis Martínez, a prosecutor who is looking into the shipments.

Health officials say they do not believe the toothpaste is harmful, because 
users spit it out after brushing, but they nonetheless took it out of 
circulation.

Mr. Martínez said at a recent news conference that the toothpaste lacked the 
required health certificates and had entered the market mixed in with products 
intended for animal consumption.

He said laboratory tests had found up to 4.6 percent diethylene glycol in tubes 
of Mr. Cool toothpaste. The Excel brand had 2.5 percent.

Miriam Rodríguez, a spokeswoman for the Health Ministry, said she knew of no 
one who had become sick from using the toothpaste.

Doug Arbesfeld, a spokesman for the United States Food and Drug Administration, 
said diethylene glycol was not approved for use in toothpaste. Though the 
F.D.A. has no evidence that the tainted toothpaste slipped into the United 
States, he added, “We are looking into the situation in Panama.”

Mr. Delgado, the director of Panamanian customs, said the Dominican authorities 
had been notified to be on the lookout for the suspect toothpaste.

In Panama City, a consumer notified the pharmacy and drugs section of the 
Health Ministry after seeing that diethylene glycol was listed as an ingredient 
in toothpaste at a store.

The ministry fined the store $25,000 and ordered it closed for not following 
proper procedures in putting products up for sale.

The Northern Star, a newspaper in the southeastern Australian city of Lismore, 
reported yesterday on its Web site that the Excel brand of toothpaste had been 
found in a chain of supermarkets and taken off the shelves immediately.

Two weeks ago, The New York Times reported that a Chinese factory not certified 
to make pharmaceutical ingredients had sold 46 barrels of syrup containing 
diethylene glycol that had been falsely labeled as 99.5 percent pure glycerin. 
That syrup passed through several trading companies before ending up in Panama, 
where it was mixed into 260,000 bottles of cold medicine.

At least 100 people died as a direct result, according to Dimas Guevara, a 
Panamanian prosecutor who is leading the investigation into the deaths.

Over the years, counterfeiters have found it financially advantageous to 
substitute diethylene glycol, a sweet-tasting syrup, for its chemical cousin 
glycerin, which is usually much more expensive.