toothpaste news stories on Newser

FDA Probes 'Hormone Disrupter' in Soap, Toothpaste

Emily Rauhala — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 04:49:06 CDT

The Food and Drug Administration is taking a closer look at an antibacterial found in soap and toothpaste. Animal studies of the substance, triclosan, suggest it may alter hormone regulation or help develop resistance to antibiotics, Reuters notes. "There are many troubling questions about triclosan's effectiveness and potentially harmful effects,...

Chinese PR Combats Export Rap

Greg Atwan — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 11:05:32 CDT

China is on a public relations blitz to keep its exports solvent after nonstop coverage of unsafe toothpaste, fish and even tires in the US, China's largest customer, last week. Beijing broke its pattern of protest over the coverage, shutting down 180 offending factories and promising consumers that tainted food...

Toothpaste Scare Widens—Again

Max Brallier — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 07:41:38 CDT

The Chinese toothpaste scare is far from over and is more than just a scare. Tainted tubes have turned up, as expected, in discount stores—but officials have also found them in institutions such as prisons and hospitals, the Times reports. Nearly 1 million tubes containing varying amounts of a...

China Shutters Scores of Food Factories

M. Morris — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 12:49:46 CDT

The Chinese government has closed 180 factories that were using dangerous and illegal ingredients, such as formaldehyde, in food products. The relatively large number of plants casts serious doubt on Beijing's insistence that the recent rash of tainted products originated with a small number of sources, the AP reports: A...

Safety of Chinese-Made Toys Is Hardly Child's Play

Colleen Barry — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 07:25:38 CDT

The latest Chinese products posing safety problems for consumers are children's toys, joining toothpaste, pet food, and drugs on an increasingly worrisome list, the New York Times reports. Last week's recall of Thomas & Friends train toys brought the total number of toys recalled by the US this year to...

Colgate Cautions Against Fake Toothpaste

Dustin Lushing — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:23:26 CDT

Colgate alerted the public today that counterfeit toothpaste bearing its brand name and possibly containing a deadly chemical has turned up in discount stores in four Northeast states. The phony products' packaging is riddled with misspellings and gives the manufacturing location as South Africa, where the company doesn't make toothpaste....

Trail of Chinese Chemicals Leads to Toothpaste

Sam Gale Rosen — Tue, 22 May 2007 08:02:39 CDT

The Dominican Republic is the latest country investigating the possibility that a poisonous chemical from China wound up in a consumer product. This time it's toothpaste that contains the industrial solvent diethylene glycol, which has already turned up in Panama and Australia, the Times reports. The Chinese government has tracked...