Updated Consumer Warning as of approximately 4:45PM Eastern Time on June 1, 2007:

The U.S. government has issued a warning to consumers. Avoid all toothpaste made in China. It may contain a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze called diethylene glycol, or DEG.

If you own toothpaste that is labelled as made in China, throw it away. Chinese toothpaste is most often sold at bargain stores.

According to the FDA news release, here are at least some of the brands that the warning applies to: Cooldent Fluoride; Cooldent Spearmint; Cooldent ICE; Dr. Cool, Everfresh Toothpaste; Superdent Toothpaste; Clean Rite Toothpaste; Oralmax Extreme; Oral Bright Fresh Spearmint Flavor; Bright Max Peppermint Flavor; ShiR Fresh Mint Fluoride Paste; DentaPro; DentaKleen; and DentaKleen Junior.

The entire FDA News Release can be found at:

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01646.html

Original post below:

Tainted pet food killed or sickened many dogs and cats in the U.S. earlier this year. The lethal ingredient was wheat flour contaminated with melamine, a chemical used in plastics.

The FDA traced the source of this contamination to 2 companies in China.

Now there’s growing concern that the problem has moved beyond pet food. To imported products used by humans.

At least one man has been sentenced to die.

Inspections Can Only Do So Much

The FDA can’t inspect all imported food. The volume is so great, it wouldn’t be practical.

In March, the FDA stopped over 200 shipments of food from China. Oranges, dates, and plums all contained unsafe ingredients. There were other problems, too.

Last week, the FDA ordered that Chinese imports of toothpaste be tested for safety before entering the U.S.

Diethylene glycol, a dangerous chemical, has already been discovered in Chinese toothpaste in other countries.

The Chinese Response

China is adopting a food-recall system to deal with this problem. They want to restore confidence in their products at home and abroad.

They’ve also taken a more dramatic action.

The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court has sentenced Zheng Xiaoyu, the former head of the State Food and Drug Administration, to death.

Technically, Zheng was convicted of taking at least $850,000 in bribes from 8 drug companies.

He was sentenced to death due to the bribes and the damage to the country caused by his dereliction of duty.

But it doesn’t take a political analyst to see that China is sending a message.

China has also had safety problems with its drugs.

Does This Man Deserve To Die?

It’s not unusual for a Chinese official convicted of corruption to get a death sentence.

By U.S. standards, that seems harsh.

But I can’t help but think of all the people and pets who suffered or even died because Zheng and others allowed contaminated ingredients to go into food and drugs.

Just so they could line their pockets with cash and other gifts.

Is this really any different than if Zheng had put the poison in the food and drugs himself? We’d consider that to be murder in the U.S. Possibly punishable by death.

So what do you think?

Does this man deserve to die?