SLEEPING PILL DANGER

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29344, 25 October 1960, Page 18

SLEEPING PILL DANGER

“Must Be Prescribed Less Frequently” (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, October 24. “Sleeping pills have come to stay—and they have come to stay as potential killers,” Dr. Keith Simpson, a Home Office pathologist, said at a national safety congress in London. “We must do something about them,” he said. “Doctors must prescribe therp less frequently.” Dr. Simpson said that at the moment “goof” pills—barbiturates—were bartered over the counters of pubs and sold openly and were often left lying about the home. They were poisons which could be prescribed by a doctor ih any quantity for anybody. “Many pills and tablets often look like brightly coloured sweets and for this reason they should be stored in safety containers that children cannot open,” he said. “If we don’t do something about this, 25 to 30 children are going to die every year. “Firms are allowed to manufacture sweets that look like pills. This Obviously must be stopped.

Legislation has become urgently necessary to restrict further the provision of dangerous soporific pills and capsules,” Dr. Simpson said. “Patients of all sorts can get them too often and too easily. Publicity, advice and commonsense precaution over the use of domestic medicines and household . poisons are overdue. We must . reduce this appalling toll of life.”