WORLD / Health
Muscle cream caused NYC teen's death
(AP)
Updated: 2007-06-10 11:29
NEW YORK - A medical examiner blamed a 17-year-old track star's death on
the use of too much anti-inflammatory muscle cream, the kind used to
soothe aching legs after exercise.
This undated family photo provided to the Staten Island Advance and
released Saturday, June 9, 2007 shows Arielle Newman. Newman, 17, a
cross-country runner at Notre Dame Academy in New York's Staten Island,
died on April 3, 2007, after her body absorbed high levels of methyl
salicylate, an anti-inflammatory found in sports creams such as Bengay
and Icy Hot, the New York City medical examiner said Friday, June 8,
2007. [AP]
Arielle Newman, a cross-country runner at Notre Dame Academy on Staten
Island, died after her body absorbed high levels of methyl salicylate, an
anti-inflammatory found in sports creams such as Bengay and Icy Hot, the
New York City medical examiner said Friday.
The medical examiner's spokeswoman, Ellen Borakove, said the teen used
"topical medication to excess." She said it was the first time that her
office had reported a death from using a sports cream.
In addition to spreading the muscle cream on her legs between track
meets, Newman was using adhesive pads containing the anti-inflammatory,
plus an unspecified third product containing the chemical, Borakove said.
The products were used and the chemical absorbed over time, she said.
Newman, who garnered numerous track awards, died April 3. She had gone to
a party the night before, then returned home and spent hours talking with
her mother.
Methyl salicylate poisoning is unusual, and deaths from high levels of
the chemical are rare.
"Chronic use is more dangerous than one-time use," Edward Arsura,
chairman of medicine at Richmond University Medical Center, told the
Staten Island Advance on Friday. "Exercise and heat can accentuate
absorption."
Dr. Ronald Grelsamer, of Mount Sinai Medical Center, said Newman had a
very abnormal amount of methyl salicylate in her body.
"She either lathered herself with it, or used way too much, or she used a
normal amount and an abnormal percentage was absorbed into her body," he
said.
Her mother, Alice Newman, said she still couldn't believe her daughter's
death was caused by a sports cream.
"I am scrupulous about my children's health," she told the Advance. "I
did not think an over-the-counter product could be unsafe."
Johnson & Johnson, the makers of Bengay, expressed sympathy for the
family and reminded consumers about "the importance of reading the label
on this and all over-the-counter medicines to ensure safe and proper
use," in a statement released Saturday.
The label on Ultra Strength Bengay says the product should be applied no
more than three or four times daily and consumers should stop and see a
doctor if the condition worsens or symptoms persist for more than a week,
spokeswoman Meghan Marschall said.
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