Medical Uses
In a 1992 press release, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that no proof had been submitted showing the main ingredients in calamine (zinc carbonate and iron(III) oxide) to be safe for use or effective in treating bug bites, stings, and rashes from poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac. The press release listed a total of 415 over the counter (OTC) drug ingredients which the FDA proposed banning for specific uses which are as yet unproven.
In a September 2, 2008 document, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended applying topical OTC skin protectants, such as calamine, to relieve the itch caused by poisonous plants such as poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac.
Read more about this topic: Calamine
Famous quotes containing the word medical:
“If science ever gets to the bottom of Voodoo in Haiti and Africa, it will be found that some important medical secrets, still unknown to medical science, give it its power, rather than the gestures of ceremony.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“They said I’d never get you back again.
I tell you what you’ll never really know:
all the medical hypothesis
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struck leaves letting go.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)