A young man who went into shock after brushing his teeth with mint toothpaste was rushed to hospital in an ambulance with his throat swollen and his whole body itching. 23-year-old Ben Cronin, a student from Lowestoft, Suffolk, started to sweat profusely in what turned out to be the first of several reactions to mint.
After his brush with death, Ben suffered several other incidents where he had to seek medical treatment for a bad reaction to products containing mint. He went into anaphylactic shock and had to be hospitalised in Sweden after drinking tea in a café without knowing it was flavoured with mint. Only last month he was given an antihistamine that contained mint after he was bitten by a spider and had to be hospitalised again after going into shock. Ben called the experience embarrassing but said that the hospital has not given him any further medication that contains mint since; however he has still suffered an allergic reaction to other products, such as sweets found in pick’n’mix.
Now Ben is calling for manufacturers to add warning labels to their products so that the same thing doesn’t happen to someone else. He argues that products must be labelled if they contain nuts but not other ingredients that may cause an allergic reaction.