Ban on cold medicine for young children

My friend Russ sent me this article. I certainly agree that if these medicines offer no benefit, they should be banned. But the tone of this article seems a tad hysterical - 50 deaths in 35 years is nothing (not to the people whose children died, of course) - 10 TIMES that many young kids drown every YEAR in bathtubs and swimming pools and buckets of water.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/29/health/29fda.html

Saturday, September 29, 2007
NY Times
Ban Sought on Cold Medicine for Very Young
by GARDINER HARRIS

WASHINGTON — Safety experts for the Food and Drug Administration urged the agency on Friday to consider an outright ban on over-the-counter, multisymptom cough and cold medicines for children under 6.

The recommendation, in a 356-page safety review, is the strongest signal yet that the agency may take strong action against the roughly 800 popular medicines marketed in the United States under names like Toddler’s Dimetapp, Triaminic Infant and Little Colds.

In the new safety review, the agency’s experts suggested that all “infant” cough and cold formulations be removed from the market, and that the droppers, cups and syringes included with products for children be standardized to reduce the risks of confusion and overdose.

The reviewers wrote that there is little evidence that these medicines are effective in young children, and there are increasing fears that they may be dangerous. From 1969 to 2006, at least 54 children died after taking decongestants, and 69 died after taking antihistamines, the report said. And it added that since adverse drug reactions are reported voluntarily and fitfully, the numbers were likely to significantly understate the medicines’ true toll.
[. . .]
Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Baltimore’s commissioner of health and an author of a petition that led the F.D.A. to conduct its current review, cheered its new report, saying it raised serious questions about why anyone would give cough and cold medicines to young children. “These products are used by hundreds of thousands of kids every year, but no one can say that they’re safe or effective,” he said.

. . . a growing number of studies suggest that cough and cold medicines work no better in children than placebos.