Toothpaste not responsible for senator's blood alcohol

Massachusetts state senator Anthony Galluccio will spend 12 months in jail, after a judge rejected the senator's claim that toothpaste was to blame for his failure to pass a series of breathalyzer tests, according to a report by WCVB TV in Boston.

Sen. Galluccio pleaded guilty in December to two charges of leaving the scene of an October 4 crash and was sentenced to six months of home confinement. He was also ordered to submit to random alcohol testing.

But on December 21 he tested positive for alcohol in a series of home-based tests, according to court documents. The following day, he issued this statement:

"Yesterday, the breathalyzer was installed and issued several low level positive reads over the course of an hour. After discussing it with a physician, we have determined that [it] is the result of my using two toothpastes -- Colgate Total Whitening and Sensodyne Toothpaste, both of which contain sorbitol. While I knew that mouthwash or cold medicine would set the machine off, it did not occur to me that toothpaste would."

James Herms, who holds five patents on Sensodyne compositions, told the Cambridge Chronicle that sorbitol would not cause positive breathalyzer readings.

"You cannot get buzzed off of toothpaste," Herms said in a letter to the Chronicle.

Sen. Galluccio was convicted twice before of driving under the influence and was found guilty of causing a four-car Boston accident in December 2005.