It can damage your liver or even kill you. Over the past ten years more than 1,500 Americans died
after accidentally taking too much Tylenol. What is too much? More than four grams or eight pills a day. In some countries (e.g., Great Britain, Switzerland, New Zealand) you can only bug Tylenol in drugstores and only one bottle at a time.
Acetaminophen overdose sends as many as 78,000 Americans
to the emergency room annually and results in 33,000 hospitalizations a year, federal data
shows. Acetaminophen is also the nation’s leading cause of
acute liver failure, according to data from an ongoing study funded by the
National Institutes for Health. From 2001 to 2010, annual acetaminophen-related deaths amounted to about
twice the number attributed to all other over-the-counter pain
relievers combined, according to the poison control data.
The FDA has known about this problem for quite a while. In 1977, an expert panel convened by the FDA issued
urgently worded advice, saying it was “obligatory” to put a warning on the drug’s
label that it could cause “severe liver damage.” The FDA did not do so until 20099. The panel’s recommendation was part of a broader review
to set safety rules for acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, which is still not finished.
No comments:
Post a Comment