Hotels destroying tainted toothpaste

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This article was published 14/08/2007 (6716 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Hotels across Canada were scrambling Monday to destroy miniature tubes of toothpaste made in China after learning they may contain a toxic chemical used to produce antifreeze.

Gilchrist & Soames, an Indianapolis-based company that supplies toiletries to upscale hotels, declared Monday it was starting a voluntary recall after independent tests showed some toothpaste samples contained diethylene glycol, also known as DEG.

The company, which imported the tainted toothpaste from Ming Fai Enterprises International Co. in China, said it had distributed the 18-millilitre tubes to hotels in Canada and more than a dozen other countries.

Imported from China

The toothpaste scare is the latest in a series of recalls involving potentially dangerous products imported from China.

News of the recall came the same day as reports from China that the head of a toy manufacturing company involved in a massive recall of Mattel products found to contain excessive lead levels hanged himself.

Canadian hotels have been giving out the potentially toxic toothpaste to guests in the last few months without realizing it contained DEG. Some hotels said they stopped distributing the toothpaste in June, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to Gilchrist & Soames about the possibility of tainted toothpaste coming from China.

“We had quarantined (the toothpaste). We kept it in a box until further advice,” said Ann Meelker, director of sales and marketing at Ottawa’s Lord Elgin hotel.

But health officials and hotels are concerned that guests who took the toothpaste home before the warning was issued may still have the tainted tubes in their possession.

“We don’t know who we’ve given it to,” said Reid James, general manager of the Hotel Grand Pacific in Victoria. “You see how difficult it could be for us to track that.”

Gilchrist & Soames touts itself as a “sophisticated purveyor of fine English toiletries” on its website and is widely known for its reputation of selling luxurious products.

Given that reputation, Meelker was taken aback to learn the company, which emphasizes its British roots, distributes Chinese-made toothpaste.

“To be honest, I was surprised myself that the toothpaste was produced in China,” she said.

The company is urging hotels and individual consumers to destroy the affected products immediately, company president Kathie De Voe wrote in an e-mail to CanWest News Service.

Health Canada said 424 hotels around the world are affected by the toothpaste recall, 12 of which are in Canada.

— CanWest News Service