Mouthwash

People who use mouthwash containing more than 25% alcohol for many years may have an increased risk for developing oral cancer, government researchers reported Friday. In the largest study of its kind, the researchers evaluated 866 oral cancer patients and found that men appeared to have a 40% increased risk and women a 60% increased risk, the researchers said. Most of the subjects had used mouthwash at least once a day for at least 20 years.

Makers of toothpastes and mouthwashes who want to claim their products prevent plaque and other dental conditions must show their ingredients are safe and effective, federal health officials said today. The Food and Drug Administration told these manufacturers to submit data supporting their claims within the next six months.

In the spirit of spring cleaning, a state college in Michigan works up an annual list of words and phrases recommended for banishment from the language. I read about this in Jack Smith's column in View. The school's banishment committee puts the kiss of death on words or phrases misused or overused. Or, as we might say in the sports world, words that are misused wrongly or overused too often. The committee overlooked sports, a fertile field of linguistic manure. So roll in the dumpster, boys.

Scope mouthwash was pulled from the shelves of a supermarket chain in four states Sunday after an anonymous caller to a mental health crisis hot line claimed to have tainted the product with cyanide. The threat, called in Saturday night to the Capital District Psychiatric Center in Albany, singled out Price Chopper supermarkets, prompting the chain to remove Scope from 58 stores in upstate New York, western Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Vermont.

Dan Phillips is one of those tall, strapping men in the oil business. Only this oil is not the crude black stuff that gushes from the ground. It's crystal clear peppermint oil, the kind used in toothpaste and mouthwash. Phillips is a peppermint oil buyer for A. M. Todd Co., a business based in Kalamazoo, Mich., that supplies flavoring to such firms as William Wrigley Jr. Co.

The Lovers of the Stinking Rose are different from you and me. They eat more garlic. As Charles Perry, an unabashed fan of the redolent plant, explains, he never met a garlic dish he didn't like. Perry, a free-lance food writer who lives in San Fernando, prefers his pasta pungent and his salad laced with chopped garlic greens.

Question: My question is with regard to Listerine's new commercial wherein they say that using Listerine can help in the reduction of plaque. Is there any way of finding out if this is true? I and, I believe, a lot of consumers, would be interested in an answer to this question as dentists now say the loss of teeth most often is because of gum disease, which is a direct result of plaque.--G.J.G.

Chinese scientists have invented a potent mouthwash able to wipe out bad breath among the most avid garlic eaters in only 10 seconds, a Chinese newspaper said Tuesday. Bad breath from smoking, drinking or munching garlic bulbs will vanish in only 10 seconds with a few drops of a newly tested "fragrant water," the Canton Evening News reported. "Experiments have shown that those who use the fragrant water no longer have terrible garlic breath," the newspaper announced. "And it has no aftereffects."