Accidental death from acute selenium poisoning

Brighthope, Ian

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2007.tb01016.x

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To the Editor: It is of great concern to me that the recent case report Accidental death from acute selenium poisoning by See and colleagues1 inappropriately cast doubts on the safety of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM). This incident should be placed in its correct context.

Australasian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine, Melbourne, VIC.

Correspondence: enquiries@nutritioncare.com.au

Competing interests:

I am the Managing Director of Nutrition Care Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd, which manufactures “practitioner only” nutritional supplements.

1. See KA, Lavercombe PS, Dillon J, Ginsberg R. Accidental death from acute selenium poisoning. Med J Aust 2006; 185: 388-389. <MJA full text>
2. Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, Therapeutic Goods Administration. Australian regulatory guidelines for complementary medicines (ARGCM). http://www.tga.gov.au/docs/html/argcm.htm (accessed Mar 2007).
3. Parizek J. Health effects of dietary selenium. Food Chem Toxicol 1990; 28: 763-765.

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