As the FDA tried to track down that state-owned company, Chinese officials stonewalled and records were destroyed. Although that incident took place in Haiti, the FDA said at the time that Americans had a vested reason to be concerned. And within 10 years they were proved correct when the same poisonous ingredient turned up in imported toothpaste in American stores.
"The U.S. imports a lot of Chinese glycerin and it is used in ingested products such as toothpaste," Mary K. Pendergast, then deputy commissioner for the FDA, wrote on Oct. 27, 1997, the New York Times reports.
Pendergast said then that learning how an ingredient used in antifreeze, the syrupy poison diethylene glycol, wound up in Haitian medicine could "prevent this tragedy from happening again," the Times reports.
But the FDA was not successful and last year more than 100 people in Panama were killed when the same inexpensive Chinese-made antifreeze ingredient was mixed into medicine in place of the more expensive medicinal ingredient glycerin.
This year the antifreeze ingredient was found in imported toothpaste on store shelves in the United States and seven other countries, prompting a recall.
But that ingredient isn't the only chemical contaminant ending up in drugs or food. And while Americans might be shocked when something they use isn't safe, people in Asia are more resigned to the situation.
The realities of hot weather, no refrigeration and the need for cheap food are the cause of food vendors and suppliers seeking alternate ways to keep their products fresh.
Formaldehyde, which is used to embalm dead bodies, can cause liver, nerve and kidney damage in live ones. But it is still used to keep rice noodles and tofu fresh longer in some Asian countries. Investigators found the chemical in seven of 10 noodle factories in Hanoi several years ago, the Associated Press reports.
