Prescription Drugs
The way prescription drugs are stored and handled can affect how well they are able to perform as they should. Incorrect storage can weaken certain medications, rendering them useless or worse. Proper storage of prescription drugs is also important to overall home safety.
While just about every bathroom has a medicine cabinet, in actuality that is typically a bad place to keep most prescription drugs. That’s because of the humidity and heat that is produced by showering with the door closed. Most prescription drugs fair better in cool, dark places. Some require refrigeration. Just about all prescription drugs need to be kept out of extreme heat or cold.
When stored improperly, prescription drugs can begin to break down and to lose their effectiveness. With many types of antibiotics, a weak dose is worse than a completely ineffective one. That’s because a weak does allows the germs to form a defense to it, to mutate to accommodate that antibiotic. For chronic illnesses, prescription drugs that have been weakened by improper storage are not going to be performing as they should, which can lead to serious health consequences.
For those with children in the house, the medicine cabinet, or any other place within climbing range of young children – and they can surprise you with their agility – or exploration range of older children, is not a good place to store prescription drugs. All it takes is one exploratory mistake by a child for a tragedy to occur, making it far better to be safe, than sorry.
Proper storage of prescription drugs is not only a matter of safety, in the sense of keeping them out of the hands of those that they were not intended for, but also of safety regarding the condition and capabilities of the medications themselves. Improper storage can cause prescription drugs to deteriorate and to be unable to effectively treat the health conditions they are being taken for. Follow storage instructions carefully for all prescription drugs and keep them out of the range of explorers.
Disclaimer: Cliff Schaffer does not personally endorse or support any of the comments made within the writings of this article. |
