Sabini warns parents about cold meds

Parents: Put down the cold medicine!
Insofar as a number of pharmacies still stock recalled cold remedies for kids, one elected official wants to remind moms and dads that the drugs have been deemed unsafe.
“We need to get the word out to people that [parents] shouldn’t be buying [these medicines],” said State Senator John Sabini.
On Thursday, October 11, several pharmaceutical companies voluntarily recalled 14 oral infant cold, cough and congestion medicines - 12 oral drops and two dissolving strips - a week before a hearing scheduled by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA). In September, researchers from the FDA recommended that their agency ban over-the-counter cough and cold products for infants, citing the risk of fatal overdoses.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, over the past two years, about 1,500 babies and toddlers have had to be brought to the Emergency Room (ER) after having a bad reaction to the meds. According to the FDA, between 1969 and 2006, 54 children reportedly died from decongestants and 69 from antihistamines. Most of the deaths occurred in children under two years old.
However, a number of pharmacies in western Queens still stock the meds. Sabini recently released a study that his staff conducted of 26 pharmacies in Jackson Heights, Corona and Elmhurst in search of the recalled medicines. At 14 stores - a bit more than 50 percent - surveyors were able to find at least one of the medications.
The 14 pharmacies included Rite Aid, Farmacia Latina, Maram Pharmacy, Super Pharmacy Unica and Roosevelt Pharmacy in Jackson Heights; Elmhurst Drugs, Elmway Pharmacy, La Vida Pharmacy, Hallmark Pharmacy, Rubex Drugs and Queens Drugs & Surgical in Elmhurst; and Galuvi Pharmacy and JAC Pharmacy in Corona.
One of the owners of B&B Pharmacy in Jackson Heights, also found to have recalled medicines on shelves, said that the store had not been informed of the potentially dangerous drugs on Tuesday, October 30.
“If the government is so worried about us pulling the items they should send a letter saying to pulling them,” said the man, who declined to give his name. “I’m going to pull the items right now,” he said, after he was told specifics about the medications, which are made by Dimetapp, Triaminic, Tylenol, Pediacare and Little Colds.
Sabini suggested that this issue might be more prevalent in western Queens than other Queens neighborhoods.
“A lot of the pharmacies in the area deal in the gray market,” Sabini said, explaining that some small shops buy their goods from larger outlets, which might have been notified of the recall but possibly did not pass on the message to their patrons.
In addition, a number of stores in western Queens are owned and operated by immigrants, who may not have a complete grasp of the English language.
“Only the mainstream media has really picked up on this story,” Sabini said, calling for information to be widely circulated in ethnic newspapers and on TV news programs.