CAUTION NEEDED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 65, 18 March 1938, Page 9

CAUTION NEEDED.

POTENTIAL MENACE. USE OF SALICYLIC ACID. CHEMISTS ISSUE WARNING. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent. ■ CHRISTCHI RCH. this day. Salicylic acid, used as a preservative, without the benefit of a chemist's adv;-.-.-is a definite potential menace to t! o health of the housewife and her fam Iv. The secretary of the ( hri-tchim ii Pharmaceutical Society, who voic u this comment to-day. added that il \- cheniists were alarmed at the housewives displayed in purchasing this chemical. Recently housewives had a>ked chemists for salicylic acid in larirc quantity-, two. three and even four •>unces. Wb -i: questioned. the householder usu.'lnstated that the chemical was to be u~ as a preservative for tomato suu-e. T.he secretary of the six'ietv emoli.;sise<l that salicylic acid s-liould tioi used in greater propitious than one grain to a pint of tluid and one gra: i to a pound of solids. He sum marised the arguments again-t the indiscriminate use of tliis cheni'c. ! as follows: — It is an antiseptic and an antifvrmentative and is liable to interfere wui. the digestive processes. After absorption it is apt to ininr-j the general health. It is an irritant and will injure *'i.> mucuous membrane of the intestinal canal. 'Tf the housewife will tell her cTiemi-r, the quantity to be. preserved he « ill advise her as to the proportion of salicylic acid required, the secretary added. "11l any case a competent housewife has informed me that she never u a preservative when makiug sauces, and that one is not required if the job 's done properly."'