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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >> "Remember, there are a whole variety of [medicinal] products that are specifically formulated to be absorbed through the skin," Varlotta said.
As with any drug, moderation is key, another expert added.
"You have to follow the directions, because the poison is in the dose," advised Elena Juris, an education outreach specialist at the American Association of Poison Control Centers in Washington, D.C. And that maxim applies to creams just as much as it does to pills, she said.
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Her groups' statistics for 2005 show that 14 Americans died from skin exposures to some kind of toxic substance, although a breakdown on exactly which substances caused those deaths has not yet been compiled, Juris said.
However, she noted that, "the seventh most common substances involved in human exposures from poisoning are, in fact, topical preparations. In 2005, poison control centers reported 109,831 exposures related to topical substances."
Newman's Bengay-linked death was an extremely rare occurrence, however, and Johnson & Johnson, which makes the cream, told AP that their product "is safe and effective when used as directed to provide relief from minor arthritis pain, sore, aching and strained muscles and backaches."
Similar to advice given for prescription drugs, it's crucial that consumers carefully read label instructions and warnings for all OTC products. Varlotta believes that the cautions could be better highlighted, however.
"If you look at all of these [OTC] products, you cannot tell anything from the outside of the box," he said. In the case of the Bengay that Newman used, "there's nothing in big letters that says that it contains aspirin," Varlotta said. "It's in the fine print."
Many consumers also fail to realize that the same drug can pop up in multiple, and very different, OTC products.
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