Folks, if you use any Johnson and Johnson over the counter products, you’ll want to read this.

An article in the New York Times (Natasha Singer, 1/14/11)  says that Johnson and Johnson is   recalling about 43 million packages of Tylenol, Benadryl, Sudafed and Sinutab products from wholesalers because of past manufacturing practices like insufficient equipment cleaning systems. Johnson and Johnson announced the recall in a press release distributed late Friday afternoon.

Clearly this is news that the company would rather not have had to make regarding its troubled McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit, the producer of the recalled brands. In 2010, Johnson and Johnson recalled about 225 million bottles of OTC medications including Motrin, Rolaids, children’s Tylenol liquid and adult Tylenol, Mylanta, Pepcid AC.

The company said it was recalling the products as a precautionary measure and not because of any reports of health problems. Consumers can continue to use the products, the firm said.

William C. Weldon, the chief executive of Johnson and Johnson, said in the statement said that steps like the historical product reviews “help us assure that moving forward, any of our products in the marketplace live up to the trusted standards and expectations that consumers have for all products coming from a Johnson & Johnson company, anywhere in the world.”