Paracetamol

[Chris38]

I came across a reference recently which stated that paracetamol is banned in the USA. Can this be true and if so why?

[jno]

it's called acetaminophen there

http://www.irishhealth.com/askdoc.html?q=5703

[jim360]

I'm not sure it's banned, but it does appear to be sold under a different name: Acetaminophen . Same product, so far as I can tell.

[sandyRoe]

It's sold under different names there according to this.

http://www.irishhealth.com/askdoc.html?q=5703

[Sqad]

No it is not true.......freely available in the U.S but known under a different name......Acetaminophen.

[jim360]

I like how jno, me and sandy all found the same link :/ First hit on Google, perchance ?

[Chris38]

Many thanks indeed to all who replied. I have always been a little suspicious of paracetamol because it is fairly easy to overdose whereupon it kills by wrecking the liver. However in the doses recommended, it is perfectly all right - doesn`t really seem like a good idea, somehow.

[Peter Pedant]

no or yes it is actaminnophen

and is in fact quite safe

It is quite hard to overdose - you have to be quite determined

[TheChair]

It's not as hard to overdose as you might imagine, because it accumulates in the liver. Therefore if you keep taking it too frequently and in relatively small doses, you can accumulate enough to overdose without ever being aware of it.

[TheChair]

Here's a link to cumulative paracetamol poisoning: https://www.mja.com.au/insight/2011/45/slow-paracetamol-poisoning-possible

[Old_Geezer]

You can't get it in the jungle either.