Child-proof pill packs planned

Blister packs would be made safer

Child-proof pill packaging could be introduced for a range of common drugs, the government has proposed.

Products which contain aspirin, paracetamol and iron supplements, and which are sold in blister strips and packs, would be covered.

The move is aimed at preventing children accidentally overdosing on medicines.

Between 2000 and 2001, almost 2,000 children admitted to hospital after accidentally overdosing on painkillers.

Exactly what safeguards are put in place would be down to the manufacturer.

The first line of defence must always be to keep medicines out of the sight and reach of children

Lord Hunt, Health minister

But the government suggest methods could include attaching self-adhesive covers to the foils on blister packages to make it impossible to pop out the pill until the adhesive cover has been peeled back.

Reclosable containers, such as bottles, are already covered by a British Standard requiring child-proof packaging.

But a new standard has been drafted to cover blister and strip packs.

The Medicines Control Agency (MCA) is proposing to incorporate the standard into UK law.

Toxic

Health minister Lord Hunt, visiting Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, said: "Whilst the first line of defence must always be to keep medicines out of the sight and reach of children, child-resistant packaging represents an important additional safeguard."

The Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) has also said that liquid paracetamol and medicines with more than 24mg of iron should be covered by child-proof packaging regulations.

As few as six tablets can contain enough iron to kill or severely injure a toddler.

Iron accounts for 2 to 3% of hospital admissions of accidental overdoses in nought to four- year-olds. It causes around one death per year.

Professor Alasdair Breckenridge, chairman of the CSM, said: "What makes iron supplements a high priority for action is that iron-containing medicines can be extremely toxic in small quantities and parents are often unaware of the risk these medicines pose to young children."

The MCA is holding a consultation period on its proposals, due to last until February next year.