TOOTHPASTE LABEL REVS UP SOME ANXIETY

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SUSAN AGER: Toothpaste label revs up some anxiety

 

January 13, 2005

 

 

 

 

 

 

BY SUSAN AGER

FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

 

 

 

I don't know why, or why I hadn't before, but the other day I read

the back of my wrinkly tube of toothpaste.

 

 

As if I don't already suffer enough anxiety, I found these

words: " Do not swallow. "

 

 

Nearby was a warning to keep the tube away from children under 6. It

got worse: " If more than used for brushing is accidentally

swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right

away. "

 

 

Words like " poison " and " do not swallow " do not belong on the label

of anything you put in your mouth even once a day.

 

 

But there they were, on my Arm & Hammer, on a tube of Colgate in my

travel case, on my husband's " natural " Tom's of Maine. When I

visited my local drugstore, I found similar words -- including the P

word -- on every brand I checked.

 

 

What the hell?

 

 

One friend guessed too much toothpaste might " plug you up like

concrete, " so that evening before bed I squeezed a tablespoon onto

my finger and ate it. Its powerful minty taste made me gag, but it

didn't kill me overnight or slow any of my natural functions.

 

 

I considered eating a spoonful every day for a month, just to see.

Instead I called the 800 number on the tube, where I learned the

warning, required by the FDA, had to do with just one toothpaste

ingredient -- fluoride.

 

 

 

So what's the problem?

" It's not meant to be ingested, " Tonya in Arm & Hammer customer

service told me. " It's just supposed to be put on the teeth to help

with strengthening. "

 

 

So what happens if you ingest too much?

 

 

" I honestly don't know, " she said, " but I've heard some people say

they squeeze the toothpaste straight from the tube into their mouths

as they leave the house, and that's not the purpose of the product. "

 

 

Prowling the Internet, I found alarming claims about fluoride: that

it's up there with arsenic and lead in toxicity, that half a tube of

toothpaste can kill a child, that it's linked to attention deficit

disorder, to Alzheimer's disease, to bone cancer and arthritis. I

learned that Grand Rapids in 1950 was the first city in America to

fluoridate its water, and that now about two-thirds of Americans

drink fluoridated water.

 

 

Only 2 percent of Europeans do, because scientists there consider

the chemical too dangerous to spread around.

 

 

I spoke with Christopher Bryson, an award-winning investigative

journalist who a year ago published " The Fluoride Deception "

($24.95, Seven Stories Press). He told me optimal fluoridation

levels of 1 part per million scare him, since research has found

dramatic toxic effects in animals consuming 5 parts per million.

 

 

He uses a fluoride filter on his home tap in New York City. As for

fluoridated toothpaste, he said, " I think about what my 2-year-old

son is looking to do, so I don't keep the stuff in my house. "

 

 

 

It's a lot to swallow

At Poison Control's national number -- 800-222-1222 -- I found Susan

Smolinske, a pharmacist at Children's Hospital of Michigan. She said

a 22-pound child would have to eat an ounce of fluoridated

toothpaste to get an upset stomach. She vaguely remembers one case

of a seizure in a child who ate too much, but said acute fluoride

poisoning from toothpaste isn't as troubling as chronic exposure.

 

 

You should worry, she said, " if you have a child who every day eats

a couple teaspoons. " That can cause severe bone and other problems.

 

 

Then she told me, " If you drink fluoridated water, you don't even

need toothpaste. It's more important to brush your teeth than to

brush them with toothpaste. "

 

 

I never knew that. I'm happy I now do, and I'm glad I read my tube,

which is now in the trash.

 

 

Contact SUSAN AGER at 313-222-6862 or ager.

 

 

 

http://www.freep.com/features/living/ager13e_20050113.htm