Abstract

Many doctors and pharmacists must have been astonished by a recent article in the Guardian entitled “Sunburn Pill”¹, which enthused over triprolidine (Actidil and Pro-Actidil - BW) as a reliable and convenient means of preventing sunburn. The author ended by recommending readers to buy Pro-Actidil for this purpose directly from chemists, since it is available without prescription. Two days later this recommendation was more or less taken back by the Guardian's Medical Correspondent, who also deprecated the indiscriminate use of drugs in general without however referring to the dangers in the use of triprolidine or other antihistamines by road users, for example. He tacitly endorsed the claim that triprolidine prevents sunburn.