HealthTree Blog

Raid your medicine cabinet for pain management and headache medicine like  Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl, St. Joseph Aspirin, Simply Sleep and Rolaids because Johnson & Johnson have recalled 54 million packages. The reason for the recall is that some packages had a smelly mold odor to them that could be from traces of a chemical called 2, 4, 6-tribromoanisole. While this chemical shouldn’t have long term detrimental effects, it can cause someone to have diarrhea, stomach pain, nausea, and vomiting. The chemical contaminated the containers of the medications by being placed on wood pallets that were treated with fungicide.

FDA Warns McNeil

The recall was prompted by a FDA warning to McNeil after an inspection of its facilities in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico. The site was warned before but never responded to them. Now, these medications have quality issues due to the company’s negligence to the FDA’s recommendations.

For detailed information about the specific products recalled, the lot numbers to look for on your products, visit the McNeil website at http://www.mcneilproductrecall.com. If you have any questions about the recall, you can receive live help by calling customer service at 1-888-222-6036.

What To Do with the Recalled Products

If you have products that are on the recall list, the best thing to do is to throw it away. If you’ve already taken the medication without any ill effects, it’s probably still a good idea to get rid of it. You may not have gotten sick the first time, but may the next, and why take the chance? Shelves in stores should be cleaned out of the recalled products and soon you’ll be able to get newer medication that are not part of the recall. In the future, if the medication smells off to you, don’t take it or give it to your children. It’s better to be safe than sorry, especially with the advent of these issues.

Photo Courtesy of: dawvon’s on flickr