Mackenzies Smelling Salts

[ererbus]

anyone know why they have suddenly been removed from sale at the pharmacy.

[Sam1960]

looks like you might need a prescription for them ....
http://www.lloydspharmacy.com/en/mackenzies-smelling-salts

[Mamyalynne]

Could be that one of the ingredients has come under scrutiny - ask your Pharmacist for a suitable alternative.

[Buenchico]

The smelling salts you refer to work (in theory, at least) by irritating the nasal passages to ease congestion.

However repeated exposure to ammonia (which is the primary active ingredient in them) can itself cause problems. ("Chronic inhalation is associated with increased cough, phlegm, wheeze and asthma" [Compendium of Chemical Hazards: Ammonia, Public Health England, August 2015]).

So it's likely that unrestricted access to the product has been blocked by making it 'prescription only'. In practice that will almost certainly result in the product being withdrawn from the market altogether (in the UK, at least), as it's extremely unlikely that any doctor would prescribe such a product.