The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT   Panama spits out
'poison' Chinese toothpaste  A brighter smile with diethylene
glycol  5 ways to prepare your advertising infrastructure for
disaster  Two brands of Chinese-made toothpastes were last week
pulled from shelves in Panama after authorities discovered they
contained potentially-fatal diethylene glycol, AP reports.
Diethylene glycol is commonly used as a cheap substitute for
glycerine, and in this case apparently to prevent the offending
toothpastes from drying out.  In large doses it can be fatal, as
attested by the deaths of around 50 people in Panama last year
who drank a cough medicine which, instead of pharmaceutical
grade glycerine, used diethylene glycol as the suspension agent.
In this case, however, the diethylene glycol was apparently
clearly labelled on the "Excel" and "Mr Cool" toothpastes,
supplied by the Hengxiang-based Danyang Chengshi Household
Chemical Co. After a sharp-eyed customer spotted the offending
ingredient, University of P