CHATHAM — For two months, dozens of children were mistakenly given pills for the treatment of breast cancer by a Chatham Borough CVS pharmacy, rather than the fluoride pills they'd been prescribed, company officials acknowledged today.

Between Dec. 20 and Feb. 20, the Main Street pharmacy mixed up 0.5 mg. fluoride tablets with 20 mg. tamoxifen tablets. Both are small, round and white, but the fluoride pills are stamped "SCI" and "1007," according to drugs.com, while the tamoxifen pills are imprinted with "M" and "247."

In a statement, CVS said "about 50" children may have been given the wrong medication but that there have been no reports of injury or ill effects. It is still not clear how the mix-up was discovered.

Among the more serious side effects of tamoxifen are blood clots, strokes and cataracts. However, experts say it is unlikely any of the children would experience harmful side effects.

"The health and safety of our customers is our highest priority and we are deeply sorry for the mistake that occurred at our Chatham, N.J., pharmacy," Mike DeAngelis, CVS’s director of public relations, said in a statement. "Beginning last week, we have contacted or have left messages for every family whose child was dispensed a 0.5 mg. fluoride prescription from our Chatham location within the past 60 days."

Company officials could not be reached for further comment.

The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs ordered the pharmacy to provide certified copies of all communications, complaints and information related to the incident.

“We have taken immediate action to determine how many families may have been impacted by this potentially dangerous situation and how we can best address this with the pharmacy to identify those families and prevent any harm to children going forward,” state Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa said in a statement issued tonight.

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Fluoride, which helps prevent tooth decay, is typically prescribed by dentists or pediatricians for children ages 6 to 16. Tamoxifen is a popular hormonal therapy for breast cancer since most forms of the disease need estrogen to grow and tamoxifen blocks estrogen from attaching to cancer cells.

Stefanie Colton of Summit, who was visiting the pharmacy today, said she was concerned since she has two children ages 9 and 6. Neither had been prescribed the chewable fluoride pills.

"Why make them white?" said Colton, who gives her children purple vitamins. "If they were purple you wouldn’t mix them up. It’s very scary to think that this could happen."

Bruce Ruck, director of drug information and professional education at New Jersey Poison Information and Education System, said the center had received just two calls from parents and one from a pediatrician regarding the tamoxifen-fluoride mix-up.

"We just do not expect any side effects in this situation," Ruck said.

RISK ASSESSMENT

Evelyn Hermes-DeSantis, director of the Drug Information Service at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, said tamoxifen is used, albeit rarely, in the treatment of some childhood diseases and conditions, including precocious puberty in girls and enlarged breasts in boys.

"Depending on the age of the boy or girl, the side effects will differ," said Hermes-DeSantis, who is also a clinical professor at Rutgers University’s Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. "If it’s an older girl, she might have irregular periods or vaginal discharge."

But Hermes-DeSantis said any side effects from tamoxifen would only occur after many months, even a year, of treatment.

Touchpoint Pediatrics, a physician’s group in Chatham, was concerned enough about the mix-up to issue its own statement:

"When our office found out about the incident, we were able to check our electronic prescribing records and contact all the patients we were aware of who might have been affected. Fortunately there have been no reports of harm to children who were given this medicine."

Star-Ledger staff writers Julia Terruso, Seth Augenstein and Stephen Stirling contributed to this report.