So there I was, about to take a pill for my headache, when a headline caught my attention as I was browsing the news websites. It said my painkiller, Tylenol, was being "recalled".
There was a list of affected "lot numbers". And yes, the bottle I was holding was on that list. The thing is, I had already used up half the contents, so whatever triggered the recall is inside my body with who knows what long-term effects. Well, that's just great.
Of course, my pharmacist had "no information" about the recall. They should be ahead of the game and making their own checks about these things. What use is a refund when it's our health and safety at stake here?
And Tylenol is just the tip of a very large iceberg. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) publishes a list of recalled items that contains hundreds of staple products that are part of most family households. There are food items, drinks (including water), toys, cosmetics, mobile phones, microwaves, medical equipment and vaccines, even vitamins and pet food. At least three of them I still have at home; I never knew they had been recalled because of "possible health risks". There are separate lists for car related items, and another one for consumer products, including clothes.
When I lived in Canada my car was fitted with a well-known brand of tyre that was part of a massive recall, running into the millions. Having already driven with them on dangerous, wet and icy winter roads, I wasn't impressed. I asked my mechanic to replace them with the safest tyres he knew, and his reply bothers me to this day: "There is no such thing. Every product may have some flaw, and it depends on what conditions happen to activate that flaw and cause damage."
Some of the worst recall cases involve infant and child-related products, such as powdered milk, that could put a fragile baby's life at risk. That is simply horrible. I remember a favourite baby biscuit that my little brother used to love to munch on was later found to contain a substance that presented a cancer risk.
When I was about five years old, I broke into our family bathroom medicine cabinet by throwing Lego pieces at the hinges (don't ask; I used some strange tactics in those days) to get to the children's aspirin. It was pink and, well, yummy. Anyone who remembers it will know what I mean. I grabbed the whole box and hid behind the sofa, gobbling them down like candy.
My mother, who was in the kitchen, came to investigate the noise in the bathroom, and saw the mess. She screamed in fear and panic and started looking for me, calling out my name. Of course, when I heard that, I started to eat the pills even faster to erase any evidence of my crime.
My mother found me eventually, and when she gently asked me how many pills I had taken, I smiled a powdery smile and said: "Ashra." Ten. It was apparently my favourite number, and I always wanted 10 of everything.
There was a hospital near our house, and my poor mother ran with me to it, terrified what I might have done to myself.
I was lucky. It turned out I had swallowed just five pills. The doctor scolded me for being a "naughty child" and told my mother to give me lot of liquids. These days, of course, because of concerns over Reye's Syndrome, parents are advised not to give aspirin at all to any child under 12 with a fever.
As far as the Tylenol is concerned, let's be glad that at least there is a process of recall - something a lot of institutions in the Middle East still have to work on. There is this fear of admitting there is "a problem" in a product or a service, in a desperate effort to maintain a good reputation. But that can sometimes come at a high cost for consumers.
I just wish that instead of relying on recalls, more big companies would devote some extra care to how they produce these things in the first place.
Anyway, I'm now looking for herbal remedies for my headache. They can't recall those - can they?
@Email:rghazal@thenational.ae
Normal People
Sally Rooney, Faber & Faber
Honeymoonish
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Test
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The Details
Article 15
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Off-roading in the UAE: How to checklist
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
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The Cairo Statement
1: Commit to countering all types of terrorism and extremism in all their manifestations
2: Denounce violence and the rhetoric of hatred
3: Adhere to the full compliance with the Riyadh accord of 2014 and the subsequent meeting and executive procedures approved in 2014 by the GCC
4: Comply with all recommendations of the Summit between the US and Muslim countries held in May 2017 in Saudi Arabia.
5: Refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of countries and of supporting rogue entities.
6: Carry out the responsibility of all the countries with the international community to counter all manifestations of extremism and terrorism that threaten international peace and security
