DOUBLE BARRELED SELF MEDICATION

Even the old Food and Drugs Act required declaration on the label of the amount of acetanilid in a remedy. As a result some, but not all, manufacturers replaced acetanilid with acetophenetidin (phenacetin), acetylsalicylic acid and other drugs. Now comes the new Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which requires declarations of all active ingredients. Furthermore, this legislation requires the declaration of the amounts of some drugs, and included in this list are both acetanilid and acetophenetidin. A number of preparations on the market have combined the "virtues" and, more significantly, the dangers of acetophenetidin and significant amounts of bromides. Such preparations are doubly dangerous; they accustom the user to the taking of bromides and thus insure a continued dosage of acetanilid. The results in some cases have been disastrous. Unlike the old act, the new Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act requires qualitative and quantitative declaration of the presence of bromides.