Acetaminophen Recall
Friday November 10, 2006
The Food and Drug Administration in the United States has alerted the public to a recall of nearly 11 million bottles of 500mg acetaminophen distributed under various store brand names. The recall was prompted when the manufacturer, Perrigo Company, noted small metal fragments in some of the caplets. There have been no reports of injuries to date, but taking the affected medication could result in injury to the mouth and GI tract. The FDA has provided a list of batch numbers located on the packages so consumers can identify the medication that is being recalled. They also provide a list of stores where the acetaminophen was sold. The list is quite lengthy, so if you have recently bought generic acetaminophen, you should consult the FDA's website to determine if you may have one of the recalled packages. It is important to note that this recall does not include acetaminophen sold under the brand name Tylenol ©. If you have taken this product and have become ill or injured, you should contact your doctor. If you find that you have one of the recalled bottles of acetaminophen, you can contact Perrigo's Consumer Affairs Department. Contact information is provided on the FDA's website.
Comments
Do they make clear during which dates the problematic drugs were on the shelf? Because I’ve got a lot of acetaminophen in my medicine cabinet, but it’s not brand new (it’s weeks, maybe months old…)
The dates were not indicated in the press release. However, given the expiration dates of some of the bottles, I would say that the bottles could have easily been sold months ago. The expiration date on some of the bottles is Nov and Dec of this year (06). Acetaminophen typically does not expire until a few years after it is manufactured. Given this information, I would advise everyone to check any generic acetaminophen you may have in your medicine cabinet, no matter how old it is.
Why is it that the FDA is stating that acetaminophen is dangerous and they need to put more labels on the product in the store? YET, the VA is not going to give the deserving veterans their pain medication if it has acetaminophen in it or even without acetaminophen not in it. They are taking the pain medication away from the derserving veterans all together…SO what are the VETERANS suppose to do? Suffer..we served our country and now we are being punished by the VA. NOT FAIR.