Last week, Belize TV news sounded an alarm about counterfeit toothpaste that was being sold at bargain prices in local stores. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the usual “they’re stealing our trademark which is protected by intellectual property rights.” This was “don’t buy it and if you have bought it, dispose of it ASAP because this stuff can kill you!” What’s the story and how did it come to this?
The chemical culprit is a common industrial chemical called diethylene glycol. The PAN Pesticides Database lists diethylene glycol as a “toxic alcohol of medical and toxicological importance.” That list by the way also includes the isopropanol alcohol or, as you may know it better, the “rubbing alcohol” in your medicine cabinet, and methanol, a type of industrial alcohol used in paint thinners. Methanol is popularly known as “wood alcohol” in the US, where for years, unscrupulous makers of cheap homemade booze would occasionally add it to their brew to increase the “kick” (some of them still do), with disastrous results. Most of the unsuspecting victims die. The few who survive suffer permanent blindness.
Belizeans who own vehicles should be familiar with diethylene glycol. It is called “coolant” or “antifreeze.” When mixed with water in an engine’s cooling system it increases the boiling point and decreases the freezing point of the solution, making it harder for your engine to overheat in our climate or to freeze in a cold climate. Leave it to some people to have found another “use” for diethylene glycol, as a cheap substitute for glycerin, a sweet tasting thickener that is part of many modern medicines including cough syrup and, oh yes, toothpaste. The problem is, it’s toxic, poisonous as all hell. It’s perfectly fine inside your engine, but it has no business being a part of any substance intended for internal use inside any living organism. So, who came up with this “idea?”
Actually, diethylene glycol showed up in medicine for the first time – we believe, until investigators suspect its presence it’s notoriously hard to pinpoint – in the US 70 years ago. One hundred people died and that particular incident was the catalyst for the formation of the FDA or Food and Drug Administration, which is charged with the responsibility for regulating all medicines made or imported for sale in the USA.
Veterinarians have been familiar with diethylene glycol poisoning for years as they receive a steady stream of unfortunate dogs and cats that, attracted by its sweet taste, drink the stuff off of garage floors, driveways and curbsides, and usually die.
Diethylene glycol poisoning is a nasty way to go. New York Times writers Walt Bogdanich and Jake Hooker, who did an excellent research piece on the subject that is posted on the Internet, describe the progression as follows: “The kidneys fail first. Then the central nervous system begins to misfire. Paralysis spreads, making breathing difficult, then often impossible without assistance. In the end, most victims die.”
Since that first incident 70 years ago, this kind of thing has become far more frequent. It has been the culprit “in at least eight mass poisonings around the world in the past two decades.” An accurate death toll is impossible to tabulate, but many estimate it to be in the thousands, maybe the hundreds of thousands. The mechanisms of modern international trade make the origins of much of the tainted medicine hard to pinpoint, particularly because almost all of it winds up in Third World countries, where people take cheap over-the-counter remedies and, in many cases, die and are buried without ever having been seen by a physician. Welcome to globalization!
In at least three of the last four cases, however, the finger points straight to the Republic of China, possibly the largest source of counterfeit drugs in the world. The process is exacerbated by slick international import-export businesses. They shortcut the documentation, remove the names of the suppliers from the shipping papers (traders claim that this is necessary to prevent the buyers from bypassing them and buying directly from the source the next time around, but it makes tracing the origin of the product difficult, if not impossible) and generally engage in the kind of “Fast Eddie” business practices that are so much a hallmark of this corrupt world.
As the New York Times article recounts, “In this environment, Wang Guipang, a tailor with a ninth grade education and access to a chemistry book, found it easy to enter the pharmaceutical supply business as a middleman. He quickly discovered what others had before him: that counterfeiting was a simple way to increase profits. And then people in China began to die.”
“He didn’t know what he was doing,” Mr. Wang’s older brother, Wang Guoping, said in an interview. “He didn’t understand chemicals.”
But, as the article points out, “he did understand how to cheat the system.” Among other things, he forged his licenses and laboratory analysis reports.
To try to be fair, if it is possible to be fair about something that has led to innumerable deaths the world over, China is a huge country with 1.6 billion people. The US had to suspend its new requirement that US citizens had to have a passport to leave and reenter the country, because the law created an administrative nightmare, a two-year backlog at last report. The Immigration and Naturalization Service is a disaster that may never be completely unraveled, and the US is a country of “only” 300,000. And China has apparently taken some steps to clean up its act. Of course they have to if they want anybody to buy from them at all, now that some of the problems have come to light. Mr. Wang got busted, 440 counterfeit drug operations were closed last year, two of their top drug regulators were arrested and charged with corruption and bribery and the head of their regulatory agency was sentenced to death for taking $850,000.00 in bribes, although whether that sentence will actually be carried out is unknown at present.
All fine and good, but many of the culprits, especially the Chinese export agencies, were let off the hook with the explanation that, “no laws had been broken,” and foreign traders who have done business with China say that the country’s drug regulation is “a black hole.” In a move that is typical of those under fire for corruption everywhere, China in a statement issued on June 3rd, called the FDA’s classification of diethylene glycol as a poisonous chemical as “unscientific, irresponsible and contradictory,” claiming on its official Web site that low levels of the chemical have been deemed safe for consumption. Unreal! Then you drink it, Mr. Official Chinese Website poster man. I’ll watch you die!
While the Alice in Wonderland syndrome has long been a feature of those who try to evade responsibility for their actions, even more disturbing is China’s claim that the amount of diethylene glycol in toothpaste exported to the USA was presented in documents for registering the product to the FDA, and the registration was approved! So far, the FDA has not commented on that allegation!
Meanwhile, we have our toothpaste. I have a tube of it right here on my table. It looks just like the genuine article, but it says in fine print, very fine print, that it was made in South Africa. According to Colgate Palmolive, if it’s not listed as being made in the USA, Mexico or the Dominican Republic, it ain’t the real thing. I sure as hell didn’t try to use it or taste it. I research my articles well, but not that well! My son brought this one over. His son, my grandson, would have used it to brush his teeth, and poisoned toothpaste is particularly dangerous for children, because they are more likely to swallow some of it than adults are!
So what is the lesson for the Belizean consumer? How about read, read and read some more? In this world you must stay informed to survive. Diethylene glycol has been used in many different kinds of medications, especially cough syrups. If you have any doubt whatsoever, DON’T BUY IT! Don’t assume anything. Maybe you’ve heard that “assume makes an ass of u and me?” In this case, assume might send your ass on an early trip to the morgue! Your life, along with the life of your family, is at stake!
Taking responsibility for yourself and for your family is essential because in the Belize of 2007 you have nobody else to rely on! Whether it’s $33 million US or $33 million Belize, this is money that should not only have gone to KHMH instead of to UHS, but to those regulatory agencies that are supposed to protect the Belizean consumer from stuff like this! No one in a position of authority in any Government department has had a word to say about the toothpaste, and none will. These guys are trying to become invisible until the general election in the hope that after whatever happens, happens, they might still keep their jobs. Who gives a damn about poisoned toothpaste? A friend of mine once said about Belize, “This is the wild, wild west. You live at your own risk.” Think that corruption is harmless? Think again!
I guess the ultimate irony is that the product from one particular factory was named “TD Glycerin.” That term appeared on virtually all of the shipping documents. Spanish authorities thought that it stood for a manufacturing process. Even Chinese inspectors concluded that it stood for the manufacturer’s secret formula. A former manager of the factory finally explained that the letters “TD” stood for the Chinese word “tidai” (pronounced tee-dai). In Chinese, “tidai” translates to “substitute.” Substitute glycerin! Talk about a clue hiding in plain sight!