September 10 : A new study has revealed that 18 top-selling over-the-counter and GP-prescribed medicines for children contain one or more of artificial additives that can trigger hyperactive behaviour.

Researchers at Southampton University have found that cocktail of food colourings—including tartrazine(E102), ponceau 4R (E124), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), quinoline yellow (E104) and allura red AC (E129)—may cause children without unruly behaviour to become more animate, loud, and impulsive.

They say that Calpol paracetamol is one medicine that gets its vivid pink colour from the red dye carmoisine. Sudafed children’s syrup has both the red dye ponceau 4R and sodium benzoate (E211), a preservative commonly used in soft drinks, they add.

According to scientists, a number of Benylin and Tixylis brand cough medicines also contain sodium benzoate, which helps prolong their shelf-life.

“The problem for parents with a sick child is that they often have an extremely limited range of medicines to choose from, which means they cannot always avoid these additives,” the Daily Mail quoted Ian Tokelove of the Food Commission, a campaign group, as saying.

“That is not fair on parents, which is why the manufacturers must face up to their responsibilities and remove the questionable additives from their medicines now,” he added.

Calpol maker McNeil Products says that the use of artificial colour was necessary because it made the medicine more acceptable to children.

The Proprietary Association of Great Britain, which represents the makers of over-the-counter medicines, said that all their products were independently assessed for safety before being launched in the market.

Sheila Kelly, executive director of the firm, claimed that the amount of additives used in medicines was “tiny in comparison” to sweets and other foods, which gave the average three-year-old children about 30mg of colouring a day. (ANI)