Mis-stored or expired drugs can be just as dangerous as misused. Learn how to store medications, what to do with medications left over from treatments, and where to throw away expired medications.

Proper drug storageis very important, and non-compliance with the rules in force can end badly. We all keep painkillers, flu medications and disinfectants at home. Medications for the stomach and runny nose, syrups, plasters with dressings, bandages. All medications are necessary for minor illnesses or minor injuries. Many of them can be stored for a long time - e.g. eye drops in disposable containers, the so-called minims, syrups and alcohol drops (for the heart, nerves, stomach). But in home medicine chests there are also medicines left over from unfinished treatments. The specifics are collected by the whole family. It is not known why we store them, we quickly forget what their original use was.

Drug storage

It is best to put the medicaments in a special, dedicated cabinet. There should be air flow inside. Medicines should not be kept in airtight boxes.

When choosing a place for a home first aid kit, the most important factors are temperature, humidity and sunlight. If not stored properly, medications will lose their effectiveness and may even be harmful.

We keep the first aid kit in a cool and dry place - so the bathroom or kitchen are not for that. Particular care must be taken to ensure that children do not have access to the first aid kit. Eighty percent of poisonings in children are caused by drugs. They are the main reason for long hospital stays, painful treatment which, unfortunately, does not always bring a young child to a full recovery. It is also important to hide medications from adults who are not independent, such as suffering from senile dementia or other diseases that limit the ability to think logically. Most of the medicines that we usually have at home should be stored at room temperature, i.e. up to 25 degrees C. By this we mean the range from 15 ° C to 25 ° C. However, the relative humidity in such a place should not exceed 70%. Only such conditions guarantee that the drug will be effective and safe for the period declared by the manufacturer on the packaging. Results from thethe fact that the bathroom and the kitchen, the most common places for home first aid kits, are the least suitable.

Which medications to keep in the refrigerator?

If the manufacturer recommends keeping them cool (information about it will be provided on the packaging or in the attached leaflet), it suggests a temperature of 2-8 degrees C, which is at the bottom of the refrigerator.

In a cold place, where the temperature is around 5 ° C, we should keep biological preparations (insulin, immunoglobulins, vaccines, probiotics), but also chemical preparations (some eye drops and inhalation drugs). When such a drug begins to be used by a patient, it usually no longer needs (or should not) be refrigerated. This is the case with insulins, for example.

Low storage temperature is especially recommended for preparations (especially eye drops) that do not contain preservatives. It allows you to maintain their appropriate microbiological purity. In other words, the obligation to keep these types of medicines in the refrigerator costs them the absence of additional irritating or allergenic substances. Most powdered preparations for suspension should also be kept in the refrigerator. Most of the antibiotics for children belong to this group. Such a preparation is stored in a pharmacy at room temperature, but adding water to it to prepare a suspension completely changes the conditions in which it must be kept. There are no preservatives in such preparations, so opening them and adding water (which should always be boiled) opens the way for microorganisms that may affect the stability of the active substance. The low temperature in the refrigerator slows down this process, but it is inevitable. This is why antibiotics in suspension (but also other drugs in this form) are only fit for use for a few days. Information about this should always be on the packaging of the drug, but the patient should also hear it from the pharmacist in the pharmacy. Unused drugs of this type should be disposed of - their reuse at a later date may be harmful.

Important

In order to avoid mistakes that are dangerous to he alth and life, every few months someone in the household should check the contents of the first aid kit. Everything that is expired or not tightly packed should be removed from it. Particular attention should be paid to tablets without packaging, which do not have any markings and we do not know how to use them. Medicines must not be thrown into the trash. The substances released from them poison the earth, water and air for a long time. Therefore, overdue orIt is best to take unused medicines to the pharmacy and throw them there into a special container, from where they will be disposed of.

All medications must be dry

Other environmental conditions are also important for the durability of the drugs. According to the regulations, the relative air humidity in a pharmacy should not exceed 70%. This is related to the influence of water molecules in the air on drug forms such as tablets, granules or capsules. The situation is similar in the case of storing medicines outside the pharmacy. It is for this reason that home first aid kits should not be located in bathrooms or kitchens, where air humidity is the highest. It can cause tablets in unsealed packaging to lose their shape and swell. Moisture also catalyzes certain chemical reactions that can affect the structure, function, and safety of drugs. In addition, it also enables the growth of microorganisms (bacteria and fungi). Therefore, make sure that the place where medicines are stored is dry.

Drugs remaining after the treatment

Antibiotics for children bought in a pharmacy in the form of a powder to be dissolved in water, if intact, can stand at room temperature. After making a syrup from them, they should only be stored in the refrigerator. Usually, this is the seven-day treatment period and should be fully used up. If we don't use all the medicine, throw the rest away. Reusing such a preparation is very dangerous. The same should be done with all other antibiotics that have been dissolved in boiled water, as well as sprays, ointments, eye and nose drops. Always check the expiry date before using each preparation. It is usually shown on the packaging or foil. In a home first aid kit, there are usually medicines of several people. For safety, especially when we have adolescent children who handle themselves, it is worth marking the packaging with a visible inscription: "grandma", "dad". It's not a very sure security feature, but it's better than nothing.

Keep these medications locked

  • prescription drugs: cardiac, hormonal (also in patches), painkillers,
  • all aerosols (for asthma, oxycort, neomycin),
  • be especially careful when storing veterinary drugs, as their ingredients have a higher concentration.
Don't do that

You are not allowed to take:

  1. suppositories of a changed shape or color, coated,
  2. discontinued drugs, about which we do not know how they were stored (especially suppositories),
  3. tablets with rough, unevensurface, crushed or wet,
  4. dragees, i.e. coated tablets, if their surface is matte, stained or covered with a gray coating,
  5. open syrups, especially sugary or cloudy,
  6. nose and eye drops, if used by someone else.
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