Diet tablet banned in Qld

Press, 16 May 1985, Page 4

Diet tablet banned in Qld

PA Wellington Five people have been admitted to hospital in Australia after taking New Zea-land-made diet tablets. Hospital treatment was needed to remove the tablets, which lodged in the throat and swelled.

The Queensland Department of Health has banned the tablets from May 31. Healtheries, the main manufacturer of the diet tablets, is trying to establish whether the tablets have already been banned.

The company’s public affairs manager, Mr Shailer Cottier, said that as a result of the Queensland ban

manufacturers were invited to make submissions to the authorities on the matter by May 14.

“But on May 13, Australian newspapers were reporting that the tablets had been banned. We have asked the Australian authorities what the story is and have not had a reply yet,” Mr Cottier said.

The generic name for the tablets is Glucomannan. They are made under a range of brand names. The tablets gradually swell on contact with water, giving a feeling of fullness, and so suppressing the appetite. Mr Cottier said problems

in Australia arose because people did not take the tablets with water.

“Two cases have been reported in New Zealand. In both cases the persons did not take the tablets as directed. Nobody should swallow tablets without water,” Mr Cottier said. The dietary fibre was also manufactured in gelatin capsule form, and this caused no problems, he said.

Healtheries had sold about 24 million tablets in Australia since the company began marketing them in February, 1983. About 10 million a year were sold in New Zealand, Mr Cottier said.