Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

the poor economic status of these areas. In Scotland the incidence is 25% in
Glasgow but only 4.8% in the rest of Scotland and here it was thought to be
due to a factory producing the analgesic combination in the locality. In
Belgium there is a much higher incidence in the north around Antwerp,
where again there are local factories producing the analgesics. There is a
similar predisposition in Germany in Northern Germany and around West
Berlin and a factor might be different drinking habits of the population.
The incidence of analgesic nephropathy around the world is also rather
bizarre. It was suggested that this might because of regional peculiarities in
the epidemiology of nephropathies.
Table 15. National figures for analgesic nephropathy
AN AN incidence % age
Australia 20.0%
Belgium 18.4%
Switzerland 17.5%
USA 7–
10.0%
Germany 5.0%
Scandinavia 3.4%
Canada 2.5%
France 1.6%
UK 1.2%
Italy 1.0%
(After Vanherweghem and Even-Adin, 1982)
The American Medical Association had a propaganda department, which in
1909 produced a leaflet for public information stating ’Beware of…. and