The Tylenol recall is FRIGHTENING to say the least. I am so grateful to have an “aunt-in-law” who works at OHSU in Portland and has connections with the CF docs there, the following is an email from one of the leading Pulmonologists. Hope this helps to ease some of the anxiety….

” I wanted to do a little reading on the recall and give you a more informed answer. Based on what I’m seeing from the FDA and the press releases, I would assess the risk to this child as extremely low.

Evidently, the B. cepacia was found on a drum used to transport raw materials – from a subcontractor/vendor that supplies the manufacturer. The actual manufacturing plant did not have any positive cultures for the bacteria. No reports of contamination down the line have surfaced – evidently the bacteria is not appearing in Tylenol bottles or packaging.

To be sure, B. cepacia is dangerous to CF patients; it’s a particularly resistant bacteria, causes significant lung damage over time, and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. It’s usually obtained from normal environmental exposure and patient-to-patient contact, spread through droplets. Thus, as an educated guess, if it were present in packaging for Tylenol — and by all accounts, it’s not – the risk would come from handling the product or breathing in its “air”, so to speak. One could argue that having a contaminated Tylenol tablet on the tongue might be a risk for colonizing the throat, and subsequently the lungs, but that’s purely academic speculation on my part, and though theoretically possible, it’s highly unlikely.

The long story short, I don’t think there’s cause for alarm: There’s no contamination of the product, and if there were, the chance of getting pulmonary colonization from it would be very remote.”