Accountability seems to be a lost quality today. The simple act of taking responsibility and doing the right thing just doesn't happen as often as it should. Maybe it is the litigious nature of our society.
Calpol and Asthma Risk
This lack of accountability is a common thread in the way most drug companies are allowed to operate in the U.S. and around the world. Consider the case of Calpol, the brand name of a drug given to infants and children in the United Kingdom. It is touted as providing relief for fever, aches and pains, colds, sore throat, teething pain, earache and post-immunization fever.
The active ingredient in Calpol is paracetamol, another name for acetaminophen, as I've discussed in a previous report of my findings. Acetaminophen is the active ingredient in Tylenol, Panadol, Anacin and many other brands. (Not surprisingly, Infants Tylenol claims to relieve the same types of pain as Calpol.)
Calpol Infant Suspension contains 120 mg of Paracetamol. The same amount of acetaminophen (Tylenol) is recommended for children 18-23 pounds.
A study recently published in the International Journal of Epidemiology found a 29 percent increase in the likelihood of an infant who used paracetamol to have asthma at age 3 years and at age 7 years.1 While considered a modest increase in risk, this is not the only study published on this topic. A previous study published three years earlier in the European Journal of Public Health examined how the frequency of paracetamol use by children increased their risk of asthma. The results are startling in terms of the increased risk of asthma in children who used paracetamol in the past year.2
What is most alarming is that 99 percent of parents and 90 percent of MDs are likely unaware of these findings. Parents are still giving their infants and children acetaminophen. Most MDs and hospitals are as well.
An estimated 25-plus billion doses of acetaminophen are sold in the U.S. each year. While there doesn't seem to be any published statistics on the number of children and infant doses, it is probably safe to say these approach 10 billion per year.
The number of people with asthma in the U.S. is increasing: from 7 percent of the population in 2001 to 8 percent in 2009. A higher percentage of children (9.3 percent) currently have asthma. Every year, asthma is responsible for 14.2 million physician office visits, 1.8 million emergency-department visits, 439,000 hospital stays and more than 3,500 deaths.3
And yet a drug that increases the risk of asthma in children by two, three and five times (depending on frequency of use) continues to be sold and prescribed to parents unaware of the potential hazards. Perhaps it is because the most popular solution to manage asthma is a lifetime of more drugs.
| Increased Asthma Risk For Children | ||
| At Ages 6-7* | ||
| Current Asthma | Severe Asthma | |
| Used at least once a year | 71% | 64% |
| Used at least once per month | 542% | 536% |
| At Ages 13-14* | ||
| Current Asthma | Severe Asthma | |
| Used at least once a year | 40% | 134% |
| Used at least once per month | 251% | 331% |
| *Children who used paracetamol at least once in the previous year. | ||
Another Drug Challenge to Consider
But acetaminophen isn't the only problem. Our country is faced with a new challenge that holds even greater potential to harm millions of Americans. State governments have or are considering the legalization of marijuana as a way to increase tax revenue. The state of Colorado gained more than $70 million in the first year of legalization and is on track to see that number more than double to $160-plus million in 2016, approximately four times the tax revenue from alcohol sales.4
A quick glance at the limited number of studies published on marijuana usage by adolescents shows correlations to psychosis,5 teen dating violence,6 neuropsychological decline (IQ decline),7 and long-lasting impacts on cognitive functions when used both personally8 and prenatally.9
Sadly, the lack of long-term studies due to the illegal nature of marijuana has given the impression pot is safer than alcohol. The reality is that many of the potential dangers of marijuana won't be revealed for another few decades.
The other reality is that we are allowing the sale of a drug to fall under the regulation of alcohol, rather than the regulation required for similar drugs. This means that in the end, no one will be accountable for whatever ailments befall marijuana users; not the growers, sellers or the state governments that enjoy the tax revenues.
When pot is legalized for adult use, it is considered OK for teenagers – at least by teens themselves. Their erroneous assumption is that their state government wouldn't legalize it if it were bad for you.
As a doctor of chiropractic, you may be one of the few who can have informed discussions with parents and teens about the potential dangers of acetaminophen, marijuana and other commonly used drugs / medications. They need to know these and other drugs have documented side effects that could do great harm. Big Pharma and Big Government might be shirking their accountability, but that doesn't mean you should do the same.
References
- Magnus MC, Karlstad O, Håberg SE, et al. Prenatal and infant paracetamol exposure and development of asthma: the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. Int J Epidemiol, 2016 Feb 9 (online ahead of print).
- Gonzalez-Barcala FJ, Pertega S, Castro TP, et al. Exposure to paracetamol and asthma symptoms. Eur J Public Health, 2013 Aug;23(4):706-10.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fast Facts – Asthma.
- State of Colorado Marijuana Taxes, Licenses and Fees Transfers and Distribution. Colorado Department of Revenue.
- Large M, Sharma S, Compton MT, Slade T, Nielssen O. Cannabis use and earlier onset of psychosis: a systematic meta-analysis. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 2011 Jun;68(6):555-61.
- Vagi KJ, O'Malley Olsen E, Basile KC, Vivolo-Kantor AM. Teen dating violence (physical and sexual) among US high school students: findings From the 2013 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey. JAMA Pediatr, 2015 May;169(5):474-82.
- Meier MH, Caspi A, Ambler A, et al. Persistent cannabis users show neuropsychological decline from childhood to midlife. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2012 Oct 2;109(40):E2657-64.
- Auer R, Vittinghoff E, Yaffe K, et al. Association between lifetime marijuana use and cognitive function in middle age: The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study. JAMA Intern Med, 2016;176(3):352-361.
- Wu CS, Jew CP, Lu HC. Lasting impacts of prenatal cannabis exposure and the role of endogenous cannabinoids in the developing brain. Future Neurol, 2011 Jul 1;6(4):459-480.
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