Warning On Use Of Sinusitis Tablets

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31519, 6 November 1967, Page 18

Warning On Use Of Sinusitis Tablets

An Australian preparation for the relief of sinusitis, which was used by an Auckland woman who later died from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, does not appear to be on sale in Christchurch.

The Auckland District Coroner (Mr A. D. Copeland) directed that the preparation be questioned by the Health Department. Questioned about the preparation, the medical officer of health in Christchurch (Dr L. F. Jepson) said the department had no experience of it, but he agreed with the Auckland coroner who said the public should be warned against unknown and unproved overseas medicinal preparations. Mr Copeland said he was satisfied that Mrs Rae Isabella Lang, aged 46, of Kingsland, who died at her home on August 20, had no intention

whatever of taking her own life, and had used the preparation in all innocence to relieve her ailment. Mrs Lang, he said, was unaware of the danger inherent in the use of the preparation, called Membrosus tablets. A pathologist’s report said her body had a 13 per cent saturation of carbon monoxide in the blood. As she had been in the habit of daily inhaling fumes from burnt Membrosus tablets, the report said, it was considered that she was suffering from chronic carbon monoxide poisoning. Mr W. P. Lang, husband of the dead woman, said the tablets had been recommended to his wife and she had sent to Australia for them. The preparation was advertised in an Australian magazine distributed in New Zealand. A Health Department offical said he did not think the tablets were on sale in Christchurch. The president of the Chemists’ Guild in the city (Mr M. A. Stone) said it appeared that the preparation was not available.