Originally published June 17 2008
Chemicals in Toothpaste Kill Teenage Girl
by David Gutierrez, staff writer
(NaturalNews) A teenage girl who died from anaphylactic shock in October was killed by an allergic reaction to her toothpaste, her family has alleged.
Francesca Sanna went into anaphylactic shock while in a car heading out with her friends for the night. She died before she could receive the necessary medical treatment.
Only minutes before the attack, she had brushed her teeth with Aquafresh toothpaste. Her parents have blamed the toothpaste for their daughter's death.
"From the beginning I thought that toothpaste might have contributed to her death," said Sanna's mother Kim. "We always used Aquafresh Mild and Minty, and then the packaging changed. This is when Francesca started to complain of sore teeth and gums - a couple of weeks before she died."
Kim Sanna noted that her daughter had brushed her teeth right before leaving the house.
"Her [allergic] reaction was so severe and so quick the trigger must have been something she did before she left the house, like brushing her teeth," she said.
In response to the allegations, a spokesperson for Aquafresh manufacturer Glaxo SmithKline said that the ingredients of Aquafresh Mild and Minty toothpaste have not changed since 2001, and that the company has never had reports of severe allergies to the product.
The coroner's report on Sanna's death was inconclusive, beyond the fact that an allergic reaction - specifically, an acute anaphylactic reaction and asthma - was definitely the cause of death.
"She must have come into contact with or ingested something that caused her death," said coroner Carolyn Singleton.
At a recent inquest into the death, pathologist Dr Richard Prescott said, "Both lungs were inflamed and the bronchials were plugged with mucus, but she did not die from an asthma attack.
"[The cause] could have been a number of different things. People have suffered severe reactions in the past from toothpaste, mouthwash or even tampons," Prescott said.
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