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Lethal amount of pain-killer being sold to customers

 

LONDON: Customers are being allowed to buy potentially lethal amounts of over-the-counter painkillers in one go, an alarming investigation has revealed.

 

More than half of shops sold more than the recommended amount, with one customer allowed to buy 240 aspirins in one go – nearly eight times above the national regulations of 32 tablets.

 

Guidelines from the UK’s medicines’ regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, state ‘no retailer should sell more than two packets of paracetamol (500mg) in one transaction’.

 

This is considered a reasonable balance between meeting someone’s need for immediate pain relief while helping to prevent stockpiling and either an accidental or impulsive overdose, they state.

 

But the investigation found the regulations were frequently flouted – with potentially devastating consequences.

 

 

M M Alam

M. M. Alam is a Pakistan-based working journalist since 1981. Karachi University faculty gold medalist Alam began his career four decades ago by writing for Dawn, Pakistan’s highest circulating English daily. He has worked for region’s leading publications, global aviation periodicals including Rotors (of USA) and vetted New York Times as permanent employee of daily Express Tribune. Alam regularly covers international aviation and defense-related events including Salon Du Bourget (France), Farnborough (United Kingdom), Dubai (UAE). Alam has reported thousands of events and interviewed hundreds of people in Pakistan, UAE, EU, UK and USA. Being Francophone Alam also coordinates with a number of French publications.