BY SIMONE J. SMITH
Crest, Colgate/Tom’s of Maine, and Hello; I want you to take a look in your medicine cabinet or on top of your bathroom sink and tell me if you see these products. More importantly, I want you to look at them, especially if you are allowing your children to use these products. I have some news for you that is not going to be exciting to read.
On Monday January 13th, 2025, six class action lawsuits were filed accusing major dental product manufacturers of deceptively marketing products containing fluoride to young children, and misleading parents to believe the products are safe for toddlers. The lawsuits also allege the companies fail to adequately flag instructions for proper use, as mandated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Well, this news would make sense for a parent living in the United States, but why does that concern a parent living here in Canada. By and large, Crest manufactures most of its toothpaste at its plant in Greensboro. However, they do manufacture some of the toothpaste in Naucalpan, Mexico. To be more specific, Kid’s Crest Cavity Prevention is manufactured in Mexico. (For anyone concerned, check the packaging ahead of time to see that it says, “Made in the USA.”).
Colgate toothpaste is made in the United States, Mexico, and other countries around the world. The Colgate Total line is manufactured in Morristown, Tennessee. (Their toothpaste that is made in the USA is usually clearly marked with “made in the USA” or “proudly made by American workers). Hello company is a natural oral care brand that was founded in 2015. The company is based in San Francisco, California, and is committed to making oral care products that are both effective and good for the environment.
According to the parents who came forward, the companies design their product labels with candy and fruit juice flavors and images and cartoon characters to appeal to young children, often misleading them to think the products are meant to be consumed as food. The complaints highlight the serious risks to children’s health from ingesting excess fluoride. These include flu-like symptoms from: acute toxicity, dental fluorosis, neurotoxicity, endocrine disruption and even death.
Colgate Kids natural product, marketed as “Silly Strawberry” by Tom’s of Maine, also features the word “natural,” implying that the product is free from toxic ingredients — which it isn’t — and that there is no need to limit how much paste goes on the brush. Crest offers flavors like “Bubblegum” and “Sparkle Fun” with cartoon animals on the box. Candy flavors and cartoons make it tempting for children to eat toothpaste, plus ask a child how good it tastes, and they will tell you. Children under age six lack the developed swallowing reflexes that allow them to control how much they ingest, increasing the likelihood they will swallow the products.
Research details that excessive fluoride intake can lead to dental fluorosis, a tooth discoloration caused by overexposure during childhood. Since the introduction of candy-like fluoride products in the 1980s, the rate of dental fluorosis among U.S. schoolchildren has skyrocketed. Rates rose from 23% of children in 1986-87 to “a staggering 68%” of children by 2015-16, the complaint alleges.
Each year, Poison Control receives between 10,000 and 15,000 calls due to excess consumption of fluoride toothpaste, and there are also thousands of calls related to the ingestion of mouth rinse most of which involve young children and hundreds of which result in hospitalization.
Ingesting too much fluoride can also cause acute toxicity, with flu-like symptoms such as nausea, stomach upset and vomiting — symptoms that parents may not recognize as being related to fluoride. The complaints note that swallowing just one full strip of toothpaste can cause these effects in toddlers.
Disturbingly, the evidence supporting these claims is growing. Scientists at the National Toxicology Program last week published a meta-analysis in the JAMA Pediatrics linking fluoridated water and IQ loss in children. It “found significant inverse associations between fluoride exposure and children’s IQ scores.”
Attorney Michael Connett, partner at Siri & Glimstad, is representing the plaintiffs. Connett successfully represented plaintiffs in the landmark lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over water fluoridation. In that case, a federal judge ruled in September 2024 that water fluoridation at current U.S. levels poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children and ordered the EPA to take regulatory action.
The lawsuits seek to hold the companies accountable for including packaging elements on their products that allegedly mislead consumers and violate the act. Plaintiffs seek statutory damages to compensate for their financial loss incurred by purchasing more of the products than they needed because they were misled to overuse them. They also seek punitive damages.
REFERENCES:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2828425
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