CHILDREN in York could be in danger because of incorrect labelling on paracetamol packets which were on sale at Tesco stores in the city.

Half a million of the faulty packs - which give the wrong dosage instructions for children - have already been taken off the shelves nationally. But 250,000 have already been sold.

The dosage for children reads half to one caplet every four hours for children under 12 years. It should read that this dosage is meant only for children aged six to 12 and no younger. Both York's Tesco supermarkets confirmed today that they were selling the product until Wednesday of this week but have now taken it off the shelves. In total 74 single packets of the drug were removed from sale and three cases of 12 from storerooms.

Neither shop was able to say exactly how many packets had been sold.

Dr Stuart Calder at the Clifton Health Centre said: "With small children the amount of paracetamol it is safe to take depends more on their weight than their age."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.