Tylenol’s Maximum Daily Dose Lowered
Every year, acetaminophen overdoses send 56,000 people to the emergency room, cause 26,000 hospitalizations, and take more than 450 lives from liver damage, according to the FDA.
This news has prompted Johnson & Johnson, the makers of Tylenol, to decrease the maximum daily dosage of products containing acetaminophen to 3000 mg/day. This move was made because too many people are not following the recommendations, which in part is due to so many products containing acetaminophen including cold and flu medicine, prescription medicine such as percocet, and others.
Advocates of this industry decision are hopeful that other companies will follow in Johnson & Johnson’s footsteps, and is overall a good public health effort to reduce the amount of overdoses on acetaminophen.