“Mum’s little helper” was the opposite…

Val Monaghan wrote to us today following a Herald Sun article about Bex. Val said, “Before Bex was banned in 1977 it was sold over the counter at every shop from the 1930s. It contained an addictive painkiller called Phenacetin which was also in Vincents APC and Veganin. Our next door neighbour died of kidney cancer when he was 61 and would send our children to the corner store to get them for him on the weekends. We lived, as I still do, on steep hill so they were happy to get them for him as an icy pole was the reward. Even if the dangers of it were known back then I doubt if he would have heeded it”.

It’s shocking to learn that 15-20 per cent of dialysis patients in the 70s were direct consumers of Bex. The WHO has seen a significant decrease in women and men’s renal pelvis cancer since it was taken off our shelves, but the cancer is still around.

I remember seeing the ads for Bex in magazines and newspapers when I was younger and it was advertised as a little miracle. It was also extremely addictive and while it wasn’t spoken about, many women must have struggled with addiction, and sadly later on in life, kidney cancer in a lot of cases. Could other medications and household products we use today be dangerous to our health without knowing it? How would we know if something we ingest daily could be harming us? It’s scary to think that something as popular as Bex has had such horrible consequences.

This discovery be have been a win for the medical world, but could there be something else they’re not telling us about? My mind goes back to thalidomide which was a morning sickness pill that led to birth defects. It joins a long list of medications with sad side effects and makes me wonder, are we guinea pigs?

What do you think? Did you mum use Bex? Do you know anyone who suffered from the side effects of this dangerous banned medication?