Contaminated toothpaste now in the UK

Contaminated toothpaste has now found it's way into the UK. Fake Sensodyne toothpaste which contains traces of toxic chemicals is being sold in markets, discount shops and car boot sales.

The UK's medicines watchdog the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has warned consumers that the fake Sensodyne toothpaste contains traces of toxic chemicals.

The contaminated toothpaste, 50ml tubes of Sensodyne Original and Sensodyne Mint contain potentially dangerous levels of diethylene glycol, which is particularly harmful to anyone with impaired liver or kidney function and young children.

The MHRA has alerted the public that the fake products are being made by "unauthorised" copycat suppliers and can be identified by the labels which are printed in both English and Arabic; genuine Sensodyne products are only ever being printed in English.

The affected batch code bears the code PROD 07 2005/EXP 08/2008, and the agency says anyone who believes they may have bought the product to throw all tubes away.

Another clue is that the genuine Sensodyne Mint toothpaste is white in colour whereas the fake version has a green paste, however, both the genuine Sensodyne Original and the fake toothpaste both have a pink coloured paste.

Also genuine versions of both types of Sensodyne only come in 45ml and 75ml tubes, and not 50ml tubes.

The MHRA does not believe that the tubes are being sold in mainstream shops or pharmacies, and says as yet there were no reports of any UK consumers suffering adverse reactions to the toothpaste.

This British toothpaste scare follows similar scares in Canada and the U.S. which revealed last month that diethylene glycol, a chemical used in antifreeze, was found in several brands of toothpaste imported from China; these products too were being sold at low-cost, bargain retail outlets.

The toothpaste scare is just the latest in a series of incidents where the quality,safety and reliability of goods imported from China have been questioned.