Postmaster General Anthony Frank endorsed legislation Thursday to require child-proof packaging of mailed medicine samples, saying it could ``head off a disaster before it happens.'' The bill was inspired by an incident last March in Saline, Mich., in which a group of children ages 3 to 8 obtained sample packages of Tylenol gelcaps from an open mailbox area in an apartment complex. The Postal Service typically places mailed samples in open racks or on tables in the mail area of apartment buildings when the packages don't fit in mailboxes. The children, pretending the gelcaps were cocaine, were crushing them and apparently intended to inhale the powder. But an adult saw what was happening, confiscated the medicine and notified police. Frank said he had received no reports of children actually ingesting direct-mail medicine samples. ``We all have it in our power to head off a disaster before it happens and what a great feeling that is for a change,'' he told the House Subcommittee on Postal Operations and Services. ``We stand foursquare behind the bill.'' No opposition surfaced during the subcommittee hearing. Voicing support for the bill were Donnelley Marketing, the company that handled the Tylenol mailing; the Direct Marketing Association; the Third Class Mail Association; and two agencies of the U.S. Postal Service. The bill would require that pharmaceutical and hazardous household product samples sent through the mail be packaged in child-proof containers. The Postal Service would refuse to deliver samples not meeting the standard. James Douglas, director of the Saline Department of Public Safety, said about 110 sample packages of Tylenol gelcaps were taken from the children. The University of Michigan's poison control center later told police that as few as six of the gelcaps could cause serious, or even fatal, liver disease in a 40-pound child. That is the typical weight of children ages 3 to 5, Douglas said. An overdose of aspirin and similar drugs would not cause any readily observable symptoms such as vomiting or unconsciousness, he said. Poison control officials told him the only way to determine whether a lethal dosage had been consumed is to conduct a ``blood screening'' within six hours of the time the drug was ingested, Douglas said. ``This truly is a situation where a tightening of rules and regulations could prevent a threat to public safety,'' said Rep. William Ford, D-Mich., a co-sponsor of the bill. Donnelly Marketing already has adopted a policy requiring child-proof packaging of medicine samples it distributes, senior vice president Ellen M. Farley said. While supporting the legislation, she said its effective date _ Oct. 1 or 60 days after its enactment, whichever is later _ might not give manufacturers enough time to comply. An additional six months should be allowed, Ms. Farley said.
