Jump to content

Warnings On Caps Meant To Curb Tylenol Overdoses


cavanami

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 21
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Cavanami,

 

I have a close friend from university who has an MSc in molecular biology and then retrained as a paramedic. He regularly gets emergency calls from people who have overdosed on acetaminophen (or paracetamol as its known in Europe). They regard anything less than 10 tablets taken at once to be a waste of their time.

 

On the other hand, he had a call from a man who said he had taken 30 tablets 2 days previously. They took him to the emergency room in the hospital but it was too late to pump his stomach and save his life.

 

In my country it is illegal to sell bottles of acetaminophen (paracetamol) tablets. You can only buy them in foil packs of 16 tablets or less. Not enough to kill you or make you seriously ill. This discourages people from committing suicide on a whim and causes half-assed attempts to fail.

 

SpiceMan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

In my country it is illegal to sell bottles of acetaminophen (paracetamol) tablets. You can only buy them in foil packs of 16 tablets or less. Not enough to kill you or make you seriously ill. This discourages people from committing suicide on a whim and causes half-assed attempts to fail.

 

SpiceMan

 

Not sure how that helps, in any medium sized UK town you could find many places to purchase paracetamol over the counter, Boots, Superdrug, Sainsbury's, Tesco etc, its a non prescription drug and as such freely available. Not that I have ever considered it but I am damn certain that getting 10 packs or 160 Pills within 2 hours walking distance is not that difficult.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But you would have to actively want to kill yourself for a period of 2 hours and make multiple purchases. If the suicide attempt was half-hearted, you might change your mind before its too late. An adult maybe wouldn't change his mind but this law was intended to protect youngsters.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, we can agree to disagree on this topic it makes neither of us right or wrong.

 

But recent figures I have seen about UK Suicide indicate a higher rate amongst late teens to early twenties age zone rather than Mr 2.2 Kids and a dog called Rover. A lot of this is brought on by bullying which in my day and age was quite rare even though I admit it did happen but in 2013 with Social Media seems a lot more prevalent in the UK (I read the Guardian not the Mail).

 

I would not like to be a teenager in the UK now, the pressures are a lot more than they were 35 years ago and I grew up under Thatcherism. Sub-Conciously a Teen could purchase paracetamol over a period of a few weeks and one day just crack. I do concede your point that it would take a concerted person to purchase 10 packs in 2 hours but it is still possible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cavanami,

 

I have a close friend from university who has an MSc in molecular biology and then retrained as a paramedic. He regularly gets emergency calls from people who have overdosed on acetaminophen (or paracetamol as its known in Europe). They regard anything less than 10 tablets taken at once to be a waste of their time.

 

On the other hand, he had a call from a man who said he had taken 30 tablets 2 days previously. They took him to the emergency room in the hospital but it was too late to pump his stomach and save his life.

 

In my country it is illegal to sell bottles of acetaminophen (paracetamol) tablets. You can only buy them in foil packs of 16 tablets or less. Not enough to kill you or make you seriously ill. This discourages people from committing suicide on a whim and causes half-assed attempts to fail.

 

SpiceMan

 

Interesting info.

 

Never considered someone doing themselves in via acetaminophen...live and learn :dunno:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my country it is illegal to sell bottles of acetaminophen (paracetamol) tablets. You can only buy them in foil packs of 16 tablets or less. Not enough to kill you or make you seriously ill. This discourages people from committing suicide on a whim and causes half-assed attempts to fail.

SpiceMan

but nothing to stop people buying the packs of paracetamol in multiple shops.

in a local arcade near me are at least 19 shops which sell the tablets.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

but nothing to stop people buying the packs of paracetamol in multiple shops.

in a local arcade near me are at least 19 shops which sell the tablets.

 

Sajann

 

Thank you for demonstrating my point and backing up my statement. I don't know exactly where you live and to be honest I have no need to, it's none of my concern, but from the posts you have made I can only but assume that you don't live in a Metropolis such as London, Birmingham or Manchester but in a medium size city somewhere on the south coast.

 

As you quite correctly pointed out, even a local shopping arcade in a medium sized city has multiple outlets where parecetamol can be legally purchased over the counter in small batches no questions asked it is not that difficult to obtain what could be a lethal dose in no time at all.

 

My 2 hour analogy was based on living is a sleepy little village in rural Cheshire similar to where I was living when in UK earlier this year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I accept that its possible to buy the tablets necessary to kill yourself if you are concerted enough.

 

But you would have to walk into multiple shops and maybe queue at the checkout multiple times, without losing the determination / courage to kill yourself. This law was aimed at saving the lives of youngsters who, if in a pharmacy would be asked "Are you taking any other medication?"

 

Even if the purchase goes ahead, the youngster might have second thoughts on the walk to the next shop. And if in a small village, there wouldn't be another shop. If this law has saved the life of even one indecisive teen, isn't it worth having?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...