China has forbidden domestic enterprises from using diethylene glycol as an ingredient in toothpaste after a number of countries banned the sale of toothpaste containing this chemical, according to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

Imports and exports of toothpastes containing this substance known as DEG are banned starting Wednesday (July 11).

Most Chinese toothpaste firms have abandoned DEG as a production raw material.

The administration maintained that toothpaste containing DEG would not jeopardize the health of consumers.

Citing a report by experts from the Ministry of Health, the administration said the long-term use of toothpaste in which the DEG content was less than 15.6 percent would have no adverse affect on people's health. None of the data suggested that toothpaste containing this substance had directly led to the human poisonings.

Recent random inspections by domestic quality authorities found most domestically made toothpaste contained no such substance. The quantities of DEG in the few detected were less than 10 percent, it said.

The United States, Japan and Canada have all recently banned the selling of toothpaste containing this substance.

Editor: Wing