Who would have thought this everyday drug could cause anything so horrific?

There’s no other way I can say it. This drug is a killer.

And its rap sheet is getting longer and longer all the time.

Of all the horrible things I’ve told you about acetaminophen, this could be the worst.

It isn’t the most common side effect. But it’s gruesome and shocking. And you never know when or who it could strike.

Last year I told you about the absurd “warning” that was placed on the lid of Tylenol bottles. You know, the one that says: “Contains acetaminophen. Always read the label.”

What kind of warning is that anyway? Okay, so it contains acetaminophen.

Now this is the kind of warning we need. And it should be on all the over 600 different bottles that contain this dangerous medication:

“This drug can cause skin reddening, rash, blisters, AND ‘detachment of the upper surface of the skin.’ This may cause death. These reactions could happen the very first time you take acetaminophen, or even if you’ve taken it before with no problems.”

Believe it or not, that is basically straight from the FDA’s wrongly named “Drug Safety” alert.

Of course, even with such horrific possible side effects, the FDA is sitting on its hands, careful not to interfere too much with acetaminophen sales.

After all, they’ve been diddling around with these terrible side effects for some time now. The consumer warning they finally issued resulted from a review of adverse effects caused by the drug from 1969 all the way through 2012!

Last year they finally began considering adding a warning about these horrible side effects. But you know with the FDA, talk is cheap — bargain basement cheap.

But whether they ever get around to adding that warning or not, here are the facts about serious skin reactions the FDA says can result from acetaminophen. And it doesn’t seem to matter if you’re taking it alone, or if it’s combined with a prescription medication or in the hundreds of combo OTC products you can easily buy anywhere.

• Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, or SJS and toxic epidermal necrolysis, or TEN:
  According to the FDA, this can begin with flu-like symptoms “followed by rash, blistering and extensive damage” to the skin. It can be fatal.

• One teen in the U.K. who developed this condition from taking acetaminophen spent a month in the hospital with severe burns and blisters from head to toe and lost most of her surface skin, fingernails and toenails. And this happened just hours after taking it.

• Acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis, or AGEP:
  This can cause pustules on the skin and can also come with fever. The FDA says that AGEP “usually” goes away in two weeks after discontinuing the drug.

The FDA claims that this information is “not intended to worry” us, but it’s very “important” that we know the symptoms so we can “react quickly” to these “potentially fatal” side effects.

Right! So is every rash you might notice a reason to rush to the ER? Well if you’ve taken acetaminophen, the answer could be “yes!”

The scariest part is that “there is currently no way of predicting who might be at higher risk.” Also, these skin reactions “can occur at any time,” even if you’ve taken the drug many times before.

When it comes to acetaminophen, it seems no cap or bottle in the world is big enough to carry all the warnings that should come along with it.

Sources:
“FDA warns of rare acetaminophen risk” Consumers updates, fda.gov

“Pharmaceutical scouts seek new star drugs for cancer, diabetes” Jonathan D. Rockoff, March 9, 2014, The Wall Street Journal, wsj.com