Children's medicine additives trigger hyperactivity.

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Children's medicines 'contain additives which trigger hyperactive behaviour'By SEAN POULTER - More by this author » Last updated at 11:51am on 12th September 2007 Comments (4) Top-selling children's medicines contain artificial additives

which have been shown to trigger hyperactive behaviour, the Daily Mail can reveal. As fears grow over the effects of such dyes in food, a study has found one or more of these additives in 18 over-the-counter and GP-prescribed medicines. The Daily Mail is campaigning to ban the additives. On Friday, sweet giant Haribo announced it would be replacing chemicals with natural alternatives. And Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Marks & Spencer and the Co-op are to axe the dyes from own-label products. The campaign began after research at Southampton University found that a cocktail of food colourings - including tartrazine (E102), ponceau 4R (E124), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), quinoline yellow (E104) and allura red AC (E129) - can lead to youngsters with no history of unruly behaviour becoming more animated, loud and impulsive. Now concern is focused on children's medicines. Among them is Calpol paracetamol. Its vivid pink colour is created with the red dye carmoisine. Sudafed children's syrup has both the red dye ponceau 4R and sodium benzoate (E211), a preservative commonly used in soft drinks. A number of Benylin and Tixylis brand cough medicines also contain sodium benzoate, which helps prolong their shelf-life. The preservative has been linked to allergic reactions and is being phased out by many soft drinks firms. Ian Tokelove, of the Food Commission, a campaign group, said: "The problem for parents with a sick child is that they often have an extremely limited range of medicines to choose from, which means they cannot always avoid these additives. "That is not fair on parents, which is why the manufacturers must face up to their responsibilities and remove the questionable additives from their medicines now." McNeil Products, which makes Calpol, said using the artificial colour was necessary to make the medicine

more acceptable to children. The Proprietary Association of Great Britain, which represents the makers of over-the-counter medicines, said all its products were independently assessed for safety before their launch. Its executive director, Sheila Kelly, said the average three-year-old consumed about 30mg of colouring a day from sweets and other foods and that the amount of additives in medicines was "tiny in comparison". 4 people have commented on this story so far. Is it not possible to tell that the medicine is full of additives and colouring when it comes out of the bottle smelling of bananas and is bright yellow in colour? Even the adult Benylin is just a bottle full of sugar!- Colette, Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada Ms. Kelly's comment - that the average three-year-old consumes only about 30mg of food dye a day, and that the amount in medicine is tiny - is unlikely. In 1977 the US National Academy of Science surveyed the food intake of 12,000 people and concluded that the average person ingested 327mg of synthetic dyes in a day. Today's junk food uses greater amounts of dyes to make food colors more intense. 20mg of dye is about enough to color a teaspoon of frosting. In addition to the dyes in medicines, foods, and beverages, many children are exposed to dye in their toothpaste and vitamins. Sensitive children will even react to dye on their skin from play doughs and colored lotions. Food dyes are known to trigger serious health problems when they are given to healthy adults, how much more damaging will they be for the sick child?- Jane Hersey, Williamsburg VA

USA The food and pharmaceutical industries are interested in only one thing - money. Perhaps someone will now take a look at Aspartame, a known neurotoxin, found in all manner of soft drinks, diet foods and used as a sweetener by millions. Foisted on an unwitting population who are blissfully unaware of how this chlorine based compound, originally designed for biowarfare, was slyly maneourved through the FDA and blindly signed off as safe for human consumption in the UK.- Emmie M, Newmarket UK We moved here from the UK last year. Here, as in the UK, it is incredibly difficult to find medicines that contain sugar rather than a substitute. My son reacts very badly to the sugar free medicines and gets completely hyper. I would much rather give

sugar, a natural ingredient, than any substitute.And why should medicines be artificially coloured at all?- Chris, Paraparaumu NZ"In conclusion, vaccines are a perfect manifestation of everything that is satanic. They represent an adulterous and arrogant tampering with divine creation, based on the intellectual conceit of "perfecting" creation. They are poisonous, containing derivatives from metals such as mercury and aluminum, and from formaldehyde. They are made from the cell lines and viruses of biblically unclean animals such as monkeys, cats, etc. Worst of all, they are made from the cell lines of premeditatedly murdered children. " Bob Sperlazzo Christian

Digest 11/29/2002

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