Are Your Drugs Safe?
Just 10 of the 21 multivitamins tested met the quality claims on the label, ConsumerLab.com of White Plains, N.Y., reported in January. Several had significantly more or less of the active ingredients than promised; one was contaminated with lead.
Last fall, more than 1 million counterfeit OneTouch diabetes test strips flooded the United States and went on sale in 700 pharmacies in 35 states.
And in December, metal poisoning took the life of a 58-year-old woman who lived on Vancouver Island, Canada. Prescription medications she had purchased from an Internet pharmacy contained toxic amounts of aluminum.
By Nancy Shute
5 October 2007