China starts looking into toothpaste cancer case.

Xinhua News Agency

BEIJING, Apr 20, 2005 (Xinhua via COMTEX)

China has started investigation on safety of anti-bacterial soap and toothpaste after American research found that such products might cause cancer, according to Wednesday's China Daily.

A professor in the United States discovered in his research chlorine in tap water and the bacteria-busting chemical triclosan in some soaps and other products can react together to create the probable carcinogen chloroform.

However, author of the study Peter Vikesland of Virginia Tech 
University, reportedly said on Monday that a decision by British 
retailer Marks & Spencer's to take triclosan-enhanced toothpastes 
off its shelves was "an apparent overreaction." 
   Although no products were withdrawn from sale in Beijing, news 
about the cancer-causing matter has raised consumer concern over 
triclosan-containing Colgate toothpaste and other products, the 
newspaper said. 

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said Tuesday both they and the Standardization Administration of China have begun looking into the case.

The agency was quoted as saying that the process will take some time before getting an accurate and reasonable judgment.

Colgate-Palmolive (Guangzhou) Co, with at least one of its toothpaste products containing triclosan, said its products have been certified by competent authorities worldwide, and are safe and effective.

China's national toothpaste standard, GB8372, makes no stipulation on the amount of the antibacterial compound triclosan allowed in toothpaste, and tests on the products focus on the presence of microbes and heavy metals, according to industry sources.

But Professor Wu Weikai of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention said he believed the risk posed by use of the toothpaste is almost "negligible".

"In toothpaste triclosan is only present in very small amounts, and the chloroform produced when it is mixed with chlorinated water is also minimal," he was quoted as saying.

The Beijing Consumers' Association has so far received no complaints about Colgate toothpaste.

The original research, which appeared in the journal Environment and Science Technology earlier this month, warned "the potential exists for substantial chloroform production to occur via daily household use of triclosan-containing products", the newspaper said.

Copyright 2005 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY.