Tainted toothpaste took an unchecked route from a Chinese factory to U.S. federal prisons, a shipping trace confirmed Friday.

The Associated Press asked a New Jersey company to trace the shipping of SpringFresh toothpaste containing an antifreeze ingredient from the Chinese manufacturer to 39 Georgia prisons and other state facilities.

One of the 21 Chinese toothpastes containing 'unacceptable' levels of diethylene glycol, a poisonous chemical. Health Canada has issued a warning to Canadians to avoid these products.
(Health Canada)

The SpringFresh toothpaste was manufactured in a plant in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou. The facility, operated by Suzhou Qingxin Daily Chemical Co. Ltd., has been making the toothpaste for at least five years, the manager said.

During the manufacturing process, toxic diethylene glycol (DEG), an ingredient in antifreeze, was substituted for the more expensive sweetener glycerin. At the time, there was no government prohibition against using the chemical. The country has since banned use of the chemical in toothpaste.

Due to the country's allowed use of DEG at the time, customs officials allowed the tainted paste to pass through customs.

Experts say it is unlikely that anyone, even a child, could ingest enough tainted toothpaste to become seriously ill. According to FDA calculations, a 22-pound child would have to eat 25, 170-gram tubes containing three per cent DEG for the chemical to be deadly.

Testing finds tainted paste in States

The FDA did not begin testing the received toothpaste until DEG was discovered in the Chinese-made product by Panamanian officials. In late May, the FDA tested 140 samples with 38 per cent testing positive for DEG. 

On June 1, the FDA issued a warning and a list of tainted toothpastes, but it didn't include SpringFresh.

Importer American Amenities did its own tests and found some tubes of SpringFresh contained DEG. Company officials declined to release the test results.

The FDA tested the tubes in June, with one Georgia paste containing six per cent DEG, one of the highest levels seen in the United States.

The importer rejected a June shipment, then after checking the product at the plant, it stopped buying SpringFresh and issued the recall.  

Tainted toothpaste at Georgian prisons

The trace found the toothpaste arrived in Georgian prisons as a result of a 2002 contract between the state and American Amenities for low-cost toiletries and other items. SpringFresh toothpaste cost the state about nine cents per 42-gram tube.

The biggest buyer was the Georgia Department of Corrections, which runs Atlanta's Metro State Prison, a 900-inmate facility for women that distributed the tubes weekly.

On June 12, guards at Metro State told inmates to turn in the toothpaste because it contained DEG. No inmates reported getting ill from the product.

The prison's 14,939 tubes of recalled paste are now bundled into 104 cartons outside its warehouse. A corrections official said they would probably be dumped into a landfill.

Health Canada found a total of 24 brands of Chinese toothpaste containing DEG in Canada, where none had been approved for sale.

On June 5, the health authority asked the Canada Border Services Agency to stop shipments of toothpaste originating in China.

Since 2005, more than 400 products manufactured in China have been recalled from the Canadian marketplace.

With files from the Associated Press