r viewpoints CHILD-RESISTANT CONTAINERS REALLY SAVE LIVES So why the apathy? Child resistant containers (CRCs) were used for all aspirin and paracetamol (acetaminophen) preparations dispensed for children in Britain from January 1976, and I year later this policy was extended to include adult preparations as well. The results have been dramatic. There were 120 children admitted to hospita1 in Newcastle upon Tvne and South Glamorgan in 1975 with salicylate poisoning, but over the next 3 years this number fell to 50, 38 and 20 admissions. Similar fmdings had been reported almost 10 years earlier in the USA. The number of admissions with poisonings from other substances which are not available in CRCs has remained relatively constant since 1974. Why have CRCs not become more popular? There is apathy on behalf of both the medical and pharmaceutical professions as well as some concern that the elderly and infIrm may find difficulty with CRCs. There is also an argument that CRes remove the responsibility from parents for the safekeeping of dangerous medicines, but the cost of such an attitude can be high. 'It is the responsibility of professional people to protect the lives of small children as parents have repeatedly demonstrated their inability to do so.' The following urgent steps should be taken: • All medicine for children which may be toxic in overdose should be in CRes. • Adults should ask for harmful medicines in CRes if there is (or is likely to be) a child in the house. • The increased cost of eRCs should be borne by the Government. • Doctors and pharmacists should adopt a more positive attitude towards CRes. The effectiveness of CRCs has been established with hard data, solid action must now follow. Craft, A. W. and Sibert, J.R.: Pharmaceutical Journal 223: 593 (8 Dec 1979) 2 INPHARMA 2 Feb 1980 0156-2703/80/0202-0002 $00.50/ 0 © ADIS Press

CHILD-RESISTANT CONTAINERS REALLY SAVE LIVES

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CHILD-RESISTANT CONTAINERS REALLY SAVE LIVES

So why the apathy? Child resistant containers (CRCs) were used for all aspirin and paracetamol (acetaminophen) preparations dispensed for children in Britain from January 1976, and I year later this policy was extended to include adult preparations as well. The results have been dramatic. There were 120 children admitted to hospita1 in Newcastle upon Tvne and South Glamorgan in 1975 with salicylate poisoning, but over the next 3 years this number fell to 50, 38 and 20 admissions. Similar fmdings had been reported almost 10 years earlier in the USA. The number of admissions with poisonings from other substances which are not available in CRCs has remained relatively constant since 1974. Why have CRCs not become more popular? There is apathy on behalf of both the medical and pharmaceutical professions as well as some concern that the elderly and infIrm may find difficulty with CRCs. There is also an argument that CRes remove the responsibility from parents for the safekeeping of dangerous medicines, but the cost of such an attitude can be high. 'It is the responsibility of professional people to protect the lives of small children as parents have repeatedly demonstrated their inability to do so.' The following urgent steps should be taken:

• All medicine for children which may be toxic in overdose should be in CRes. • Adults should ask for harmful medicines in CRes if there is (or is likely to be) a child in the house. • The increased cost of eRCs should be borne by the Government. • Doctors and pharmacists should adopt a more positive attitude towards CRes. The effectiveness of CRCs has been

established with hard data, solid action must now follow. Craft, A. W. and Sibert, J.R.: Pharmaceutical Journal 223: 593 (8 Dec 1979)

2 INPHARMA 2 Feb 1980 0156-2703/80/0202-0002 $00.50/ 0 © ADIS Press