| Safe Food Campaign media release 4 March 09 |
Medicine warning for kidsRecent reports linking over the counter medicines to deaths and adverse reactions in children highlight the need for children's medicine to be safer. Medicine should also be fully labelled with ingredients and more consumer choice should be given, a newly formed group of parents says. Some issues of particular concern include:
"This situation is all the more deplorable when there is evidence these over the counter medicines are just not effective," says Alison White, Co-convenor of the Safe Food Campaign, speaking on behalf of the parents' group. "We have become used to having ingredients fully disclosed in our food, but we are continually frustrated that this regulation does not yet apply to medicine or dietary supplements," declared Ms White. "Consumers have the right to more information than they are getting. We would welcome Medsafe and the Food Safety Authority recommending to the Government that full disclosure of ingredients for medicines and dietary supplements be carried out. "We are also concerned about potentially harmful ingredients such as artificial colours and artificial sweeteners in medicines and dietary supplements designed for children, and the lack of choice for parents. It is impossible, for example, to get paracetamol in some children's hospitals without artificial colours and sweeteners. As well, there is no subsidy available for colour free paracetamol at pharmacies." Artificial colourings have been associated for many years with hyperactive behaviour, eczema, asthma and other allergic reactions in children. Restrictions on certain artificial colours have recently been enacted in both Britain and Europe. A robust 2007 study commissioned by the British Food Standards Agency concluded that certain food additives including colourings and the preservative sodium benzoate can influence hyperactive behaviour and affect learning. As a result of this study, a voluntary ban on six artificial colours has been requested by the Agency. Major supermarket chains in Britain, as well as Cadbury and Nestle have pledged to remove all artificial colourings from their products. The European Parliament is requiring warning labels on artificially coloured products by the end of 2009. In New Zealand and Australia, Nestle have said they would remove artificial colours from Smarties this year. Other food manufacturers, supermarket chains and the regulatory authority Food Standards Australia New Zealand have yet to follow the example set by Britain and Europe. "Independent, non-industry-funded research into the artificial sweetener aspartame (951, Equal, Nutrasweet, ‘phenylalanine') shows a range of adverse effects, ranging from mild and transitory to debilitating and life-threatening," said Ms White. "No parent who is aware of adverse effects from this controversial sweetener would want to willingly give medicine, dietary supplements, or indeed any food containing it to their children. Yet often there is very little choice. In New Zealand aspartame is in at least 81 medicines designed for children, and Britain has issued a warning for at least three of these medicines. "We want full labelling of medicines and dietary supplements, colour-free and artificial sweetener-free medicines available in hospitals and a subsidy for these in pharmacies. We want to encourage manufacturers to remove questionable and potentially harmful ingredients from their products and give the consumer more information and choice, while we wait for our regulatory authorities to do something about the appallingly neglected area of children's medicine," concluded Ms White. NOTES The six artificial colours used in the South Hampton study, resulting in a request for a voluntary ban in Britain, were the yellows, tartrazine (102), quinoline (104), sunset yellow (110), and the reds, carmoisine (122), ponceau (124), and allura (129). In New Zealand, as at October 2007, 124 medicines, including 81 designed for children, contain the artificial sweetener aspartame. The 81 are:
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