Camphorated Oil

To the Editor.—  Camphorated oil, the externally used, over-the-counter rubefacient and liniment, is an embarrassment to pharmacists, because they continue to stock and sell this questionably effective, toxic preparation, which has a history of being mistakenly ingested for castor oil, the laxative and cathartic.^1-3 It is also an embarrassment to the Food and Drug Administration because it has not as yet curbed use of this camphorcontaining product by mandating that manufacturers use a child-proof safety cap in addition to restricting the container packaging to a size not exceeding 30 mL and adding poison warnings in red ink on the label.⁴Now Kopelman et al (241:727, 1979) have published another case of camphorated oil's being mistakenly ingested, where 90 mL was inadvertently swallowed from a 120-mL bottle. The patient assumed that castor oil was being used.When does all this stop? Camphorated oil should be removed entirely from the