Safety-capsule advocate thinks of giving up fight

Press, 2 April 1979, Page 4

Safety-capsule advocate thinks of giving up fight

, After trying for three years to get a licence to import a screw-top metal capsule that carries personal and medical information inside it, a Christchurch importer is almost ready to give up. Mr L. W. Fox, managing director of Leonard L. Jones, Ltd, of Christchurch, a hardware importer, is at a loss to understand why the Department of Trade and Industry refuses him a licence to bring in the SOS capsules, which he says are in use in all’ the Eng-lish-speaking countries. “The department seem to be creating a monopoly for the ‘Medic Alert’ bracelets in this country.” he said. Around the world 19M people are using the SOS capsules, known as Talismans, which were invented in Switzerland five years ago, according to Mr Fox. He says they are superior to other types of

“alert” products, including cards and bracelets now available because there is no central reference bank needed. All the information about the wearer’s condition, doctor, his or her address, and next-of-kin contained on a narrow strip of paper which unwinds from the SOS capsule after it is unscrewed. With the .“Medic Alert” bracelets it is necessary to ring a Wellington number on the bracelet to get information about the person in need of help, and this takes valuable time, Mr Fox says. Also, the SOS product is the only one which works internationally. “Once you get on a plane, none of the others are an}' use,” says Mr l ox. In the case of cards carrying personal and medical information, Mr Fox says that "it was more than a man’s life is worth” to be found searching the person of a

prostrate woman. for example, or her handbag, for that matter. The SOS Talisman can be attached to a bracelet, necklace, or clipped on the inside of a watch strap. The reason given by the Department of Trade and Industry for refusing Mr Fox an import licence for the SOS capsules is that the New Zealand Medical Association, the Health Department, and the Ambulance Transport Advisory Board do not feel (here is a need in New Zealand for it in view of the existence of the “Medic. Alert system. “In a letter dated March 20, the department said "while the department does agree that the SOS talisman offers a means of personal identification as well as the wear’s medical history we feel unable to without the unqualified support of the New Zealand medical association.” A spokesman for the department in Wellington said yesterday. “The Medic Alert system is established here and, as far as we can find but, it si doing a first-class job.” The spokesman said that “Mr Fox has a lot of homework to do — he has not told us how he would market the thing yet.” Mr Fox denies shat he has not done his homework. In fact, he has so man}' files full of homework, he has just about had enough homework. He says that the New Zealand Medical Association agree with the idea of medical-alert-type products, but refuses formally to endorse any one brand of them, Medic Alert included. When he wrote to the Health Department about rhe matter, it relied in a letter dated May 11, 1978, saying that, the SOS medical and personal identification system “extends beyond the scope of the

Medic Alert sy stem ” The Department of Trade and Industry has allowed him to import the chains and the special paper — waterproof and heatproof — for the Talisman, but not the capsules. Similar capsules on chains, for the identification of dogs, are allowed into the country. “There’s no avenue left,” he said. “That is why I’ve come to you. I am not asking for the earth. I just want to bring them in in their raw form, and have the plating, assembling, boxing — about half the process — done in New Zealand. When the scheme is off the ground, 1 would like to give the assembly to sheltered workshops —we are not manufactuers — and pay them to assemble them for us." Mr Fox says that in Australia the SOS capsules are assembled nv quadraplegics and welfare organisations. "In New Zealand, we tend to stick our heads in the sand,” he says. “You would think these Trade and Industry boys would take account of the fact that these things are backed and sold in England by the St John Ambulance, and in Europe by the Red Cross.”