GOING DUI ON ALLERGY MEDICINE
GOING DUI ON ALLERGY MEDICINE
CASSAHOWITZKA, FL :A letter from Eileen M. reminds that Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) laws have been replaced with Driving Under the Influence (DUI). She says that a number of legal medicines can lead now to a driving conviction. This includes prescription drugs as well as nostrums right off the open shelves. Some of these otherwise helpful medicines can cause side effects similar to and just as dangerous for drivers as is alcohol.
One medicine in the news is the antihistamine, diphenlyhydramine, sold widely for allergy symptom relief. Researchers at the University of Iowa reported that this medicine had a greater affect on some important driving skills than does alcohol. Particularly noted was a serious decrease in steering ability which could lead to crossing into oncoming vehicles. One has to wonder whether the roadways are teeming with drivers who may not realize that the “funny” feeling they experience is not caused by the illness but rather by the trusted cure.
This danger needs much more publicity and law enforcement scrutiny. While it is relatively easy to sniff out the heavy drinker of alcohol, not so for most medicines. It is likely that many crashes have as their cause undetected medicine induced DUI rather than driver carelessness. This could explain why so many careful and normally safe drivers have crashes for which they have no explanation – “it just happened” or “it was not my fault”.
The U of I research scientists also tested a newer allergy medicine whose generic name is fexofenadine. It is the active ingredient in a popular prescription drug. This chemical substance had no deleterious effect on the driving skills which they measured.
GHD219 all rights reserved
CASSAHOWITZKA, FL :A letter from Eileen M. reminds that Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) laws have been replaced with Driving Under the Influence (DUI). She says that a number of legal medicines can lead now to a driving conviction. This includes prescription drugs as well as nostrums right off the open shelves. Some of these otherwise helpful medicines can cause side effects similar to and just as dangerous for drivers as is alcohol.
One medicine in the news is the antihistamine, diphenlyhydramine, sold widely for allergy symptom relief. Researchers at the University of Iowa reported that this medicine had a greater affect on some important driving skills than does alcohol. Particularly noted was a serious decrease in steering ability which could lead to crossing into oncoming vehicles. One has to wonder whether the roadways are teeming with drivers who may not realize that the “funny” feeling they experience is not caused by the illness but rather by the trusted cure.
This danger needs much more publicity and law enforcement scrutiny. While it is relatively easy to sniff out the heavy drinker of alcohol, not so for most medicines. It is likely that many crashes have as their cause undetected medicine induced DUI rather than driver carelessness. This could explain why so many careful and normally safe drivers have crashes for which they have no explanation – “it just happened” or “it was not my fault”.
The U of I research scientists also tested a newer allergy medicine whose generic name is fexofenadine. It is the active ingredient in a popular prescription drug. This chemical substance had no deleterious effect on the driving skills which they measured.
GHD219 all rights reserved
posted by WRECK-LESS at Monday, October 20, 2008
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