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Is Colgate Total Toothpaste Safe?
Colgate uses triclosan to help prevent gum disease, but controversy over the antibacterial chemical has many companies phasing it out.
Colgate’s Total, one of the most popular toothpastes in America, contains the toxic antibacterial chemical triclosan.
Colgate claims that Total is safe, citing the FDA process that led to the toothpaste’s 1997 approval. Some of the scientific findings in the application to the FDA that Colgate used to establish triclosan’s safety in toothpaste were not too convincing. Those results weren’t available until this year, Bloomberg News said. The FDA application included 35 pages detailing toxicology studies on triclosan, including studies showing fetal bone malformations in mice and rats.
Colgate uses triclosan to help prevent gum disease, but controversy over the antibacterial chemical has many companies phasing it out and regulators reviewing if it’s safe to put in soap. Minnesota just voted in May to ban the chemical in many products.
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The FDA didn’t release the 35-page toxicology summary of Colgate Total and triclosan until early 2014. The only reason that this data was made public, was because of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed in 2013. After some pressing from Bloomberg News, the FDA also published the findings on their website.
The fetal bone malformations in mice and rats, indicate that triclosan is disrupting the endocrine system and disturbing hormone function.