"Fatal Syrup"?!? This is not something I needed to know about.
Turns out, if you actually read the article, that they're talking about diethylene glycol in cough syrup, not sweet Vermont gold. Its an industrial solvent found in anifreeze, but can also be used as a sweetener if you don't mind the side-effects; like death.
A Chinese company labeled a shipment of the stuff "TD glycerine" and sold it to someone in Spain, who sold it in Panama as "medical glycerine" where it was used to give cough syrup that kickass sweet goodness. Toothpastes in China apparently regularly use the stuff, which I guess is why you shouldn't 1)swallow your toothpaste or 2) buy toothpaste from China. But that's not really cool for larger doses and at least 50 people died from the goof.
I would say that this is the US Drug companies trying to make us afraid of buying foreign made toiletries, and I'm sure the Brush administration is working on a way to link it to Iraq, but to tell the truth we've been poisoning people with this stuff since 1937. And we're not about to stop now.
So whether you're an Austrian making fine wine in a hurry, or a Chinese toothpaste factory looking to trim its sweetener budget, diethylene glycol is the poison for you.
On a side note, the headline still says 'fatal syrup', and while your favorite flapjack topping has been cleared of all charges, I'm still gonna worry next time I sweeten up my morning.
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