Warning Over Paracetamol Dangers

It's one of the most common drugs to be found in our medicine cabinets, but a warning's gone out that Paracetamol can too easily be a killer.

An overdose of tablets can cause liver failure and lead to a slow, painful death.

Each year around 70,000  accidental and deliberate overdose cases are reported in England and Wales.  About 130 of them will end in a fatality.

The chairman of the Devon Local Medical Committee, Dr Mark Sandforwood's been talking about the dangers of this freely available pain-killer: "you don't have to go much higher than 8 tablets a day before you can actually cause yourself some very serious and permanant damage. As few as twenty tablets taken in one go can cause liver damage and death from liver failure is slow and painful and very distressing."

To listen to the full interview CLICK HERE