Even Calamine Is on FDA’s List of Useless Medicines
The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that hundreds of ingredients in over-the-counter medications don’t work, and products making those claims will have to change their formulas or labels.
Some of these remedies are common--like calamine lotion. Mom said it was good for bug bites and poison ivy. It’ll stop the itch.
Prove it, says the FDA.
Calamine is among 415 ingredients that the agency says are not shown to be effective. Under the proposed rules published by the FDA, calamine, a pink mixture of zinc oxide and ferric oxide, could be sold as a “skin protectant” but not as an “external analgesic.”
It may protect the skin, but it doesn’t make it feel any better.
“We are taking this action because no proof has been submitted to FDA that shows the ingredients are effective for the conditions claimed,” FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler said.
None of the ingredients the agency proposes to ban are considered unsafe, and manufacturers could leave them in the products as long as they are treated as inactive ingredients, officials said. This will force manufacturers to switch to other ingredients of proven effectiveness or change their labels.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
