Scandalous asthma drops

With the cold and dry season in full swing in Japan, it is harvest time for makers of cold and all the attached symptoms reliever over the counter pills and syrups. As a professional asthmatic of +20 years, I could not but be pissed off at the sight of ad stickers in the Tokyo subway today about Asadaame brand drops for cough, asthma and phlegm. Since when a sore throat sweet has had any effect on asthma? The drug is sold in drugstores of course, where cigarettes are also readily available.

Looking into more details on the maker's web site, I found this pathetic catch-phrase claim : Asthma type cough is a violent and painful kind of cough that tends to be continuous. Three ingredients have beneficial effects on such throat symptoms. The semantic transition from a claim about asthma to an implicit suggestion that asthma is some sort of sore throat issue is simply appalling. Mining deeper into the shallow web side of Asadaame, one can find yet a further step of semantic transition toward the basic truth that these are after all nothing but mere sore throat drops. In the Q&A section, the chapter on safety usage does not even suggest to rush to the doctor if ingestion of these drops prove to have no effect, especially on asthma. As for the chapter on ingredients, it is "still in construction". This happens in a modern country where several thousands of badly treated asthma sufferers die each year while cases of asthma are on the rise. Long live the snake oil medecine-men.