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Dept of Health

Answer

Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is his most recent calculation of the total number of deaths that have been (a) associated with and (b) attributed to paracetamol use in each of the past seven years for which records are available. [40606] Mr. Malone: The number of deaths associated with paracetamol in 1993, 1994 and 1995 reported to the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys--the Office for National Statistics from 1 April 1996 following a merger with the Central Statistical Office--is shown in the table. The data for 1989 to 1992 are published, for each year separately, in table 10 of "Mortality statistics:injury and poisoning, England and Wales", series DH4, Nos. 16-18, copies of which are available in the Library. For the number of deaths attributed to paracetamol use in the past six years, reported to the Committee on Safety of Medicines, I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 12 February 1996, Official Report, column 462. For the year 1989, no fatal reports associated with the use of paracetamol were received by the Committee on Safety of Medicines. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1993 1994 1995 Deaths by poisoning--accident 86(27) 94(26) 111(27) Paracetamol only 44(9) 40(10) 41(6) Paracetamol with other drugs{1} 42(18) 54(16) 70(21) Deaths by poisoning - suicide 236(42) 212(25) 239(19) Paracetamol only 67(7)) 68(5) 77(2) Paracetamol with other drugs{1} 169(35) 144(20) 162(17) Deaths by poisoning-- 130(25) 147(27) 218(30) undetermined Paracetamol only 62(6) 52(5) 72(1) Paracetamol with other drugs{1} 68(19) 95(22) 146(29) _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} These include deaths from paracetamol-containing compounds. The figures in brackets include indicate the number of deaths with a mention of alcohol. These bracketed figures are already include in the unbracketed data and should not, therefore, be added to them. {}

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

40606; 282 c1043-4W;282 c1041-2W

Session

1995-96

Subjects

Death Drugs Paracetamol

Contains statistics

Yes