Tainted toothpaste importers charged

Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, in concert with FDA, files criminal charges against two firms found importing and distributing over 70,000 tubes of Chinese-manufactured toothpaste contaminated with diethylene glycol, Delgadillo's office announces March 6. The presidents and vice presidents of both Vernon Sales and Selective Imports Corp. were charged with criminal counts for receiving, selling and delivering an adulterated drug product; the maximum penalty for each count is a $1,000 fine and one year jail-time. Investigators believe the firms distributed 480 tubes of DEG-containing "Cooldent" toothpaste to Los Angeles businesses over the past 12 months, according to a release. FDA began sampling toothpaste imported from China in May 2007 based on reports that DEG-contaminated toothpastes were being exported from China to the Dominican Republic, Panama and Australia ("1The Tan Sheet" May 7, 2007, p. 15)...