SAFETY PACKAGING FOR MEDICINES BILL (Hansard, 10 December 1974)

§ Mrs. Jill Knight (Birmingham, Edgbaston)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make it compulsory for all medicines which could be fatal to young children to have child-resistant opening devices fitted. I made the case for this Bill on 30th April this year. Although the House gave me leave to bring in that Bill, it subsequently met a sad demise at the hands of the Government, who were awaiting the report of a sub-committee of the Medicines Commission which was set up to examine the presentation of medicines relating to child safety.

The case for the Bill is that many thousands of children are poisoned by eating or drinking medicines prescribed for adults. The children poisoned in this way are very young. Almost all of them are under five years of age and very few are over seven. In other words, it is no use putting a label on a bottle or telling them that they must not take anything from a bottle of a certain colour.

The report now issued states that there are between 15,700 and 16,700 cases of child poisoning through drinking or eating medicines every year. But these are admissions to hospitals. Probably at least double that number of children are treated at clinics or by their own general practitioners.

Publicity drives aimed at telling parents and others who care for very young children to lock medicines away simply have not worked and will not work. The figures prove that they will not work. Some people are naturally careless, and even the most careful people are prone to the small domestic crises that we all meet from time to time, which mean that medicines are left unattended while mother answers the telephone or the door bell or father has everything moved so that he can redecorate.

I believe that the case has been made for action. There is an urgency about this matter which Department of Health and Social Security officials appear to disregard. I am in no circumstances blaming the Minister. I am sure that it has not been his decision. The hon. Gentleman is very busy and has many other things to do. Indeed, he is a doctor, a 241 humane and reasonable man, who has said in this House that he is concerned about this matter.

I brought in the original Bill in April and the committee reported in a leisurely way on 8th August after the House had gone into recess.

On 5th November a Written Answer revealed that a statement on the matter would be made probably in the New Year."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 5th November 1974; Vol. 880, c. 98.] I should jolly well hope that it would be made, because the new year is 12 months long and it could be a very long time before any action was taken.

Children are being poisoned every day that we delay action. Thousands more have been poisoned since April when I first raised this matter. No doubt if they had all died there would have been a greater sense of urgency. Of course, they do not all die, but they have to be treated, and the treatment is always extremely painful and unpleasant. In fact, doctors have recently warned that some children suffer long-term psychological disorders after the use of the stomach pump.

I am not happy about the report of the sub-committee, partly because it proposes action only on tablets. It states that tablets—most poisonings are the result of swallowing tablets—should be placed in reclosable containers which would be difficult for a child to open.

Tablets are not the only guilty constituents in this regard. Many children are poisoned through drinking medicines. They will not be helped by what the report recommends.

I am also unhappy about the report because of what it says about testing. The Bill that I introduced recommended that the British Standards Institution should carry out tests to ascertain whether a closing device was child-resistant. The report states that the Commission feel unable to support the introduction of standard tests for child-resistant containers requiring participation by young children, because these would involve showing the children how to open them. I have heard some stupid things in my time, but nothing more stupid than that. The idea of these tests is to get a room 242 full of children and to give them the devices to see whether they can open them within a certain period. If at the end of that time they have not succeeded in opening them, one does not go over to them and say, "Diddums, diddums, dere, dere. This is how you open it". There is no need to do that. Indeed, in America and Canada, where such tests have been successfully carried out, that was not done.

I am disappointed that the report should rely on the publicity drive. I do not think that publicity drives work. We must get away from the notion of having to spend more public money erecting hoardings or advertising on television warning the public not to allow medicines to be within the reach of children because, for the reasons that I have indicated, such measures do not work.

Parts of the report are good. It recommends that tablets ought not to look like sweets and ought not to be packed in large bottles. That is fine, but we ought to do more, in view of the evidence available to us.

People suffering from arthritis were nervous in April that the Bill that I wanted to bring in would make it impossible for them to open medicines. I intend again, if the House gives me leave to bring in the Bill, to have a special arrangement for such people so that they need not have their medicines in these bottles. The evidence from the United States and Canada, where child poisoning cases have been cut down drastically following legislation, shows that this House ought to do something to guard against this danger to children. If the cost is dear, it is not so dear as the cost of treating children in hospitals.

The attention of the Medicines Commission was first drawn to this matter in June 1973. Over a year has passed since that time. My small Bill would, I hope, provide the Government with a vehicle and an opportunity to start dealing with this problem so that children would no longer be poisoned in this way.