RMI Marine Safety Advisory No.18-13
The Republic of the Marshall Islands has been issued Marine Safety Advisory No.18-13 regarding Ships Medical Chest – Incorrectly Supplied and Mislabeled Medicines as follows:
The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) Maritime Administrator (the “Administrator”) has been made aware that medicines being supplied to ships for their medicine chests may not always be accurately supplied and/or labeled. This is a serious issue that has the very real potential to jeopardize the health of a seafarer who may need medical treatment aboard a ship.
Thus, the importance of dealing with a reputable supplier of ships’ medicines and medical supplies cannot be overemphasized. Some recent examples of incorrectly supplied and mislabeled products include:
- Fever reducer labeled as morphine;
- A dietary supplement with inadequate dosage delivered as charcoal to absorb ingested poisons;
- Shock treatment for swimming pools supplied instead of tablets for the preparation of drinking water;
- Hand sanitizer supplied as opposed to an ingestible antidote for methanol or ethylene glycol poisoning; and
- Sunburn/insect bite cream supplied to treat severe and painful hydrofluoric acid burns instead of calcium gluconate.
The Administrator highly recommends that ships recheck their medical chests to ensure that medicines have been supplied as ordered and are properly labeled. A thorough review of the entity used to regularly supply the medicine chest is also highly recommended. If abnormalities occur, an external verification by an expert (pharmacist) may become necessary.
The Administrator’s requirements for ships’ medicine chests are contained in RMI Marine Notice 7-042-1. Section 2.0 of that Notice addresses inspection and certification.