Now with the warmer weather coming upon us many people are taking advantage of the weather and the time to renew by starting a spring cleaning project.While going through your old, unwanted things set some time aside to review the contents of your medicine cabinet. Many people have unneeded or expired prescribed and over the counter medications hiding in the corners or behind that box of bandaids.
Consuming a old or expired medications is harmful and in many times fatal. The efficacy of a old antibiotic can be weakened, or consuming the wrong antibiotic for your particular illness may have a poor effect if any at all, causing a progression in your illness and can have hand in the growth of the "superbugs" like MRSA and VRE.
Even over the counter medications, such as Tylenol and cold tablets contain expiration dates. Over time the chemical makeup of these medications can change causing serious side effects.
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According to the FDA website:
- In 2007, there were 255,732 cases of improper medicine use reported to Poison Control Centers in the United States. Approximately 9% of these cases (23,783) involved accidental exposure to another person’s medicine. Approximately 5 thousand of these accidental exposure cases involved children 6 years and younger.1
- Keeping medicines after they are no longer needed creates an unnecessary health risk in the home, especially if there are children present. Even child resistant containers cannot completely prevent a child from taking medicines that belong to someone else. In a study that looked at cases of accidental child exposure to a grandparent’s medicine, 45% of cases involved medicines stored in child-resistant containers.2
There are federal guidlines in the disposal of unwanted medications. I have found this website the most helpful:http://www.ct.gov/dcp/lib/dcp/drug_control/pmp/pdf/consumerpharmdisposalfactsheet_(2).pdf
