HHP Medication Safety Watch: July 2020

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This list contains selected items from the full FDA list of recalls, withdrawals, and alerts for medicines and certain health products. We've provided links to FDA information for each product and its maker. Unless otherwise noted, these actions apply only to the specific brand name of the product listed. Talk to your healthcare provider before stopping or changing any medicines or treatments that they have recommended for you.


Over-the-counter products and medicines

Hand sanitizers may be contaminated with methanol (wood alcohol)

Comment: Drinking a product that contains methanol can cause vomiting, headache, or blurred vision. More severe toxicity includes permanent blindness, seizures, coma, or death. In rare cases, toxicity could develop from contaminated hand sanitizer applied to skin. Young children are at particular risk of accidental poisoning by products containing methanol.

CBD oil contaminated with lead

  • KORE ORGANIC Watermelon CBD Oil Tincture (maker: Summitt Labs)
Comment: Eating or drinking a product that contains lead may cause lead poisoning. Signs of lead poisoning include muscle weakness, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, poor appetite, brain inflammation, shock, and kidney failure.

Hemp oil contaminated with lead

Comment: Eating or drinking a product that contains lead may cause lead poisoning. Signs of lead poisoning include muscle weakness, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, poor appetite, brain inflammation, shock, and kidney failure.
 

Prescription medicines

Metformin may be contaminated with a compound that may cause cancer

Comment: Metformin is prescribed for type 2 diabetes. Certain batches of metformin extended-release tablets contain a higher than acceptable level of N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), a known carcinogen (a compound that may cause cancer).

 


Read additional issues of HHP Medication Safety Watch

Image: BackyardProduction/Getty Images
 
 

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No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.

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