[Nathans_Dad]

From Snopes.com

On 6 November 2000, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a public health advisory warning that phenylpropanolamine (PPA), an ingredient found in many over-the-counter cold medications and diet aids, may cause strokes and thus should be avoided. Although the FDA has not yet issued a mandatory recall of PPA-containing products, they have asked drug manufacturers to voluntarily stop selling products containing PPA and provide safer alternatives. As a result, most products that formerly included PPA have now been discontinued or reformulated without PPA while the FDA proceeds with the regulatory process necessary to remove all PPA-containing products from the market.

The list of products cited in the e-mail quoted above is now several years out of date, and as the FDA has noted:
[T]here is no comprehensive, updated list available from FDA. FDA is aware of emails circulating widely that list many products allegedly containing PPA. Those emails are no longer valid and should be ignored. Please read the labels of OTC products to determine if they contain PPA.
The FDA has set up a toll-free number for PPA questions at (888) INFO-FDA. A direct line, although it is not toll-free, is (301) 827-4570. The FDA also has a Phenylpropanolamine (PPA) Information Page available on their web site. The FDA has advised that consumers go through their medicine cabinets, paying special attention to cold remedies and diet aids, and discard any medications that list phenylpropanolamine as one of their
ingredients.

According to the FDA, "Although the risk of hemorrhagic stroke is very low, FDA recommends that consumers not use any products that contain PPA." The FDA warning came as a result of a May 2000 study conducted at Yale University School of Medicine, in which the Hemorrhagic Stroke Project found PPA to increase the risk of hemorrhagic stroke, a type of stroke characterized by bleeding in the brain. In October 2000, an FDA advisory committee confirmed the findings in the Yale study published by The New England Journal of Medicine, which suggested that PPA could raise the risk of stroke even in young people aged 18 to 49.

(Not everyone is convinced that PPA poses nearly as much of a threat to consumers as claimed, and some critics have maintained the withdrawal was initiated by an overly cautious FDA based on flawed studies.)

P.S. PPA was used in some OTC and prescription decongestants.