Oprah, House and Garden TV, home magazines; they are all hot on the de-clutter bug. Even the FDA is stepping in. Last Wednesday FDA announced that many unapproved cough/cold and allergy medicines would be removed from the market. http://www.fda.gov/downloads/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/UCM245228.pdf
The manufacturers of these products have 90 days to quit manufacturing the drugs and 180 days to cease shipments. After perusing the list of unapproved drugs, I noticed that while I remember a few from my childhood, most of these drugs are very old. Most were marketed prior to legislative requirements for demonstration of safety and efficacy. Often we forget how relatively new drug legislation requirements are. The mandate sounds dramatic, but I consider it a matter of the FDA de-cluttering; something I for one applaud. The cough/cold and allergy cadre of drugs deserves some attention. Not because some bad folk choose to make illegal drugs from the decongestants, but because they often have the potential for serious side effects. Who hasn’t taken a whopping dose of something for cold relief and either didn’t sleep for a day, or slept for a day or more? Keep going FDA. It may even shame me into de-cluttering my medicine cabinet.