Officials with Rutgers University in New Jersey have warned that there has been an increase in poison control-related calls for overdoses of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, to treat flu-like symptoms.
“Cold and flu season is the time of year when we see an uptick in calls at the Poison Control Center related to the overuse of acetaminophen to alleviate flu-like symptoms,” Diane Calello, with Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, said in a statement on Jan. 10. “Most people don’t realize they’re at risk of overusing acetaminophen because they’re unaware so many medicines contain this ingredient. There are more than 600 products on the market that contain acetaminophen.”
