According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 40,000 Americans die each year from prescription and over the counter drugs (OTC), while pain relievers, cough medicines etc. cause thousands of additional deaths, as side effects, allergic reactions, overdoses and interactions prove fatal.

Apart from that, there is one more reason about taking such drugs, as only recently OTC pain reliever TYLENOL Arthritis Pain Caplets were recalled, including Benadryl, Motrin, Rolaids, Simply Sleep, St. Joseph Aspirin and Tylenol, having been contaminated with mould and chemicals, during storage on chemically treated wooden pallets during transportation.

Recently, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a division of Johnson & Johnson’s after consulting with the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), expanded its voluntary recall of all lots of TYLENOL Arthritis Pain pills, having received innumerable complaints of the pills smelling of mould and mildew. Several consumers taking the pills reported suffering from nausea, vomiting, stomach pains and diarrhoea.

Tracing the source of the musty odour, McNeil said the tablets had had become contaminated with a chemical called 2,4,6-tribromoanisole, an active compound of a chemical used for treating wooden pallets and store packaging materials.

Bob Moore, Chairman and CEO of Intelligent Global Pooling Systems (iGPS), a manufacturer of hard plastic pallets for food and drug transportation spoke out against using wooden pallets saying, they are frequently contaminated with dangerous chemicals and pesticides, including lab studies confirming they also harbour deadly food poisoning bacteria and pathogens.

Moore pointed out wooden pallets are not as natural as they sound, since they are made from engineered wood containing urea formaldehyde, a well-known carcinogen.

In addition, wooden pallets are often fumigated with methyl bromide, a highly toxic, ozone-depleting chemical, for killing insects.

However, certain plastic types, particularly the soft kinds are not necessarily safe, as they have also been known to leach chemicals.