New Warning on Tylenol Caps Help To Prevent the Painkiller Overdose Epidemic
Beginning in October, whenever you purchase a bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol, you will see a red warning on the bottle cap alerting you of the potential risk of taking too much pain reliever. After a significant amount of lawsuits and an overwhelming amount of deaths, the company seems to be taking their response very seriously. They plan on sharing very explicitly that the Extra Strength Tylenol bottles contain acetaminophen, which can lead to sudden liver failure.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, there have been on average 55,000 to 80,000 people in emergency rooms in the past year from overdoses from acetaminophen and at least 500 deaths. Tylenol is not the only over the counter product containing acetaminophen. Many other brands such as Nyquil, Excedrin, and Sudafed also contain acetaminophen. Tylenol will be the first product to include a warning label like this on the bottle cap.
Acetaminophen has been proven safe when used as directed which is around 4,000 milligrams or less than eight pills a day. Because of the overwhelming amount of overdose cases, the FDA has recommended that the product be eliminated from shelves altogether and move to only selling Extra Strength Pain Reliever with a prescription.
Tylenol and its parent, Johnson and Johnson, have been warning consumers of other issues and risk with their products since 1990. They have settled many lawsuits over failure to warn consumers. Hopefully this new method of warning will prevent future emergency visits and deaths.
For more information on the warning and what steps Tylenol has taken in the past you can visit: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/tylenol-issue-warnings-pill-bottles-article-1.1440915.