I AM struck by how many of my constituents complain at the number of occasions in recent years when drugs appear to have been withdrawn in some haste. But as Robert Matthews asks: 鈥淐an we ever be sure that medicines are safe before they hit the market?鈥� (快猫短视频, 5 March, p 23). His article certainly struck a chord with one respected local doctor, who shares the unease of some of his patients.
When it comes to detecting side effects, most trials are too small to find anything less than decimation. I, for one, would be pushing up the daisies were it not for pharmaceutical advances in the past 10 years, and I owe my continued existence to the pharmaceutical industry. But I have also recently experienced an unexpected side effect, and that focuses the mind.
Lord Warner, who speaks for the government on pharmaceutical issues, pointed out to me that all effective medicines have the potential to cause side effects. Most are not serious, and are predictable from the known actions of the drug. A few may only occur in a small proportion of the people taking the drug, but can occasionally be severe or even fatal. The trouble is that it is not practical to expect all trials to include thousands or millions of subjects.
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I am glad to hear that in the first session of the parliament elected this week, the Department of Health will try to persuade ministers of the new government to strengthen the regulation of medicinal drugs.
FOR two decades, I have read carefully any article on transport carrying Mick Hamer鈥檚 byline. So I was intrigued by his serious and convincing proposal for the use of sail in ships to reduce the amount of fuel they use (快猫短视频, 26 February, p 44). David Jamieson, who was a junior transport minister and member of parliament for Plymouth, but has now sadly retired from the House of Commons, assures me that the Department of Transport is maintaining a 鈥渨atching brief鈥� over this technology and any other form of alternative ship propulsion.
The UK has acceded to the 1997 protocol that augments the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships. The protocol adds a new Annex VI to the convention, which provides for the establishment of International Regulations for the Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships. This annex comprises 19 regulations and includes a technical code on the control of emissions of nitrogen oxides from marine diesel engines.
The regulations also deal with ozone-depleting substances and various emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, volatile organic compounds and the incineration of ship-generated waste.
Jamieson tells me that regulations are currently being drafted to bring these issues into force, as an important contribution to the reduction of air pollution from ships.
