A MUM has taken on the might of pharmacy giant Boots in a bid to get them to remove paracetamol tablets from shelves which can be easily reached by children.
Juliette Dean, from Olton, launched her crusade after her two-year-old son Henry twice removed boxes of Panadol Extra from low lying shelves as they waited in line for the tills at the Boots store on the Sears Retail Park in Shirley.
On both occasions Henry also managed to open the boxes, though fortunately his mum noticed before he popped the pills out of their plastic packaging.
Mrs Dean likened their positioning to sweets close to supermarket checkouts and she twice complained to management at the store, who admitted they had had several similar complaints.
The second time they said they were unable to remove them as they were awaiting instructions from head office regarding a new floor plan.
Mrs Dean then took her fight up with Boots customer services staff speaking to a number of people in succession.
She said: "They are like sweetie racks - at an ideal child's height - and Henry leaned down and picked up a packet of 20 Panadol Extra, which you can just flick open and press the pills out.
"They are leaving dangerous medicines there that children can easily get hold of and the packaging is so child friendly it's unbelievable. I said I was amazed they couldn't just take them off the shelves but they also said it was to do with contracts with suppliers."
A spokeswoman for Boots told the Solihull Times: "Boots The Chemists take every precaution we can in making medicines available for everyone in a safe and accessible way.
"Medicines that are deemed to be a potential risk to the public have packaging that's childproof and tamperproof and these have been approved by the MRHA."
