Spain pulls more contaminated toothpaste: ministry

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2007

MADRID (AFP) — Spanish officials rushed to pull hundreds of thousands of falsely labelled toothpaste from shops nationwide Wednesday after a government lab found traces of a toxic substance normally used in antifreeze.

More than 693,000 units had been withdrawn nationwide amid a growing scare over illegal imports, particularly from China, said the Federation of Consumers in Action (FACUA).

Health ministry labs had so far only tested some 300 samples, but they had turned up evidence of diethylene glycol -- a substance also used in antifreeze.

"This has come as a scare to 45 million Spaniards. They are alarmed," said Angeles Heras, director of consumer affairs at the health ministry.

A spokesman for the National Consumer Institute (INC), part of the...