Cargo Of Toxic Toothpaste Handed Over to Health Officials
A representative of the company La Bomba yesterday handed over to the Ministerio de Salud (Health ministry) a truck loaded with some 3 tonnes of the toxic toothpaste, "Mr Cool".

Last week Salud inspectors confiscated a quantity of the toxic product from a business identified as La Bomba.

The ministra de Salud, María Luisa Ávila, said the load delivered yesterday was in a San José warehouse of the company.

Ronny Muñoz, legal director of the Ministerio de Salud, said that the cargo was handed over to them as show of cooperation by the company. Muños added that the company also handed over invoices to help Salud officials track the rest of the product that was sold to retailers.

The legal director made emphasis that the actions of the company does not mean that its owner will not be held liable to prosecution, in fact Muños was adamant that charges will be filed against the company.

In a separate action, Salud inspectors yesterday confiscated from a Desamaparados retailer another brand of the toxic toothpaste called "Genial".

The ministerio de Salud is asking everyone to be alert for the toxic toothpaste under the brand name "Mr Cool" and "Genial", products that contains Diethylene Glycol  and made in China.

Like ethylene glycol, a solution of diethylene glycol and water is used as a coolant.

Diethylene Glycol  is attributed to the cause of 56 deaths in Panama when it was found in cough medicine.

Minister Avila said that the toothpaste was shipped to Panama and has found its way into Costa Rica illegally, as the brands are not registered with the Dirección de Registros y Controles del Ministerio de Salud.

Minister Avila confirmed yesterday that health officials had known about the presence of the toxic paste in Costa Rica but it wasn't until last week that they were able to find evidence of such.

"The problem is that the paste came into the country illegally and nor customs could have identified it because the product label had a different description of its contents", said Avila.

The minister is concerned because there still is an unknown amount of the product in Costa Rican homes and people can become intoxicated.

Minister Avila is calling on anyone who has a product which seems strange and does not count with the required Salud registration number to call 221 6028, 222 4800 or fax 222 1415 to make a report.

Toxicity
Diethylene glycol has been responsible for a number of mass poisonings.

- The most infamous incident was the 1937 Elixir Sulfanilamide disaster in the USA, in which 107 people died after taking sulfanilamide dissolved in diethylene glycol.

- In recent years, deaths from medicines adulterated with diethylene glycol have been reported from South Africa, India, Nigeria, Argentina, Haiti, and Panama. In Haiti in 1996, 85 children died due to glycerine contaminated with diethylene glycol in a paracetamol syrup produced by Pharval Laboratories, a Haitian company, which did not use standard quality assurance procedures to verify the purity of the glycerine (which was supplied by a Dutch company, Vos, from a manufacturer in China, but the point of contamination with DEG was never determined).

- In 1985 a small number of producers of Austrian wine were found to be adulterating their product with diethylene glycol in order to give the wine a sweeter and more full-bodied taste. The amount added was not high enough to be immediately toxic (one would have to ingest about 28 bottles per day for two weeks); however, exports of Austrian wine collapsed. As a result of this incident, stricter regulations were imposed on Austrian wine makers, and the industry shifted its emphasis from the production of bulk, somewhat sweet wines to lower yields of higher quality, drier wines. Thus, the 'antifreeze scandal' is regarded as having been positive for the industry in the long-term.

- In 1990, in Bangladesh, 339 children developed kidney failure, and most of them died, after being given paracetamol (acetaminophen) syrup contaminated with diethylene glycol.

- In October 2006 the CDC and the Ministry of Health of Panama detected toxic levels of diethylene glycol in a sugarless liquid expectorant during an investigation of 56 deaths from a syndrome characterized by gastrointestinal symptoms, renal failure and paralysis. Almost all the victims were hypertension and diabetes patients in their 40s to 80s. Criminal investigations are ongoing. 

The source of the contamination was found to be the Taixing Glycerine Factory, a Chinese company in Hengxiang, China. Taixing Glycerine sold diethylene glycol falsely labeled as pharmaceutical grade glycerine, through the state-owned Chinese trading company CNSC Fortune Way, based in Beijing. A government agency in Panama purchased the falsely labeled product containing diethylene glycol and incorporated it into 260,000 bottles of cold medicine. The United States Food and Drug Administration issued an Industry Guidance Document highlighting appropriate testing procedures for use of glycerin in response to product contamination and misrepresentation.[9]

- In May 2007, Panamanian officials reported that toothpaste manufactured in China with "glycerine" contained high levels of DEG.