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Johnson and Johnson‘s McNeil Healthcare Unit, manufacturers of Tylenol are in trouble again after consumers began complaining that their bottles of adult Tylenol smelt musty. The musty smell is chemical preservative called 2,4,6-tribromoanisole used in crates of wooden pellets that the medication is packed in during transit.
Johnson and Johnson are already facing investigation by the FDA for breaches in health and safety and their factory at Fort Washington, Pa, is closed while the investigation is carried out.
The medicine tastes and smells foul, but the manufacturers say they don’t think there is a risk of harm. They have recalled the offending bottles as a precaution.
Just a few months ago they recalled lots of Tylenol for arthritis pain for the same reason. That product had caused stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea in consumers who took it. The company say that these effects are only temporary and not serious but no one has ever studied the effects of ingesting the chemical.
If you have bought or taken the affected products, you can telephone Tylenol’s customer care team on:
1-888-222-6036
Other medications have also been recalled. These are:
Concentrated Tylenol Infant’s Drops (grapes, cherry flavor and hospital only variety, various sizes).
Children’s Tylenol Suspension (cherry blast, dye-free cherry, grape splash, bubblegum, very berry strawberry flavors, various sizes).
Children’s Tylenol Plus Suspension (cough and sore throat cherry, cough and runny nose cherry, dye-free cold and stuffy nose grape, dye-free multi-symptom cold grape, flu bubblegum, cold and allergy bubblegum flavors, various sizes).
Motrin Infant’s drops (Berry flavor and berry dye-free, various sizes).
Children’s Motrin (berry, berry dye-free, tropical punch, grape, bubblegum flavors and hospital only variety).
Children’s Motrin Cold Suspension (berry flavor).
Children’s Zyrtec (dye-free bubblegum syrup, grape syrup, grape, bubblegum, bubblegum liquid, perfect measure grape flavors).
Children’s Benadryl allergy liquids in bottles (sugar-free, dye-free bubblegum flavor).
If you or your child has had an adverse reaction to one of the recalled products, you can report it here:
www.fda.gov/medwatch
Joanna is a freelance health writer for The Mother magazine and Suite 101 with a column on infertility, http://infertility.suite101.com/. She is author of the book, 'Breast Milk: A Natural Immunisation,' and co-author of an educational resource on disabled parenting, in addition to running a charity for people damaged by vaccines or medical mistakes.
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I read somewhere that this is the 12th Tylenol recall in 12 months. Given all of the stuff you already hear about the risks of taking acetaminophen - a quick Google search brings up sites like http://www.liverfailurefromtylenol.com/ - this latest recall sadly just seems like business as usual.
You mentioned the FDA site where you can report reactions to the recalled products. Readers might also be interested in checking out the FDA's updated Safe Use Initiative: Acetaminophen Toxicity which addresses some of these same issues http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/ucm230396.htm
October 26, 2010 - 8:45amThis Comment