By IANS
Managua : The Nicaraguan health ministry said it has seized some 40,000 tubes of toothpaste containing a highly poisonous substance, Spanish news agency EFE reported Thursday.
Health Minister Maritza Cuan said at a press conference Wednesday three brands of the China made toothpaste were confiscated at various stores in Managua's Eastern Market and in cities in the country's interior.
She said the product is believed be contaminated with the potentially deadly diethylene glycol a highly toxic industrial alcohol that could be deadly to humans even in small doses if ingested or from merely topical use.
Earlier this year some 100 people died after they used cough syrup and lotion prepared by the Panamanian Social Security Institute and was accidentally mixed with the poisonous substance.