HEALTH : Doctor Urges New Tylenol Study

Further research on the long-term use of acetaminophen, sold under the brand name Tylenol, is necessary since a new report showing increased risk of kidney failure, cancer, heart disease and death after extended use of a related chemical, a University of Pennsylvania doctor said today.

Dr. Paul D. Stolley said in the current edition of the New England Journal of Medicine that it has become “clear that much more research must be done if we are to understand what risks, if any, are posed by moderate or heavy acetaminophen ingestion over a period of many years.”

The results of a 20-year study, published in the same edition, show that long-term users of the painkiller phenacetin are twice as likely to die and 16 times more likely to develop fatal kidney disease than people who did not use it.

Regular phenacetin users are also twice as likely to die of cancer and three times more likely to die of heart disease.