When was the last time you cleaned out your medicine cabinet?
Although it might not be at the top of your summer to-do list, if you can’t recall the last time you organized your medicine cabinet, it might be wise to take some action to prevent any potential accidents lurking behind those closed doors. While it may feel a bit late (or early) for a “spring cleaning,” this task should be tackled at least once a year. There’s an official day dedicated to this, called the National Clean Out Your Medicine Cabinet Day, which falls on the third Friday of April each year. The timing aligns well with spring cleaning. As they say, it’s never too late!
Why Should You Clean Out Your Medicine Cabinet?
Based on a 2017 survey by Consumer Reports, nearly one-third of respondents had neglected to tidy up their medicine cabinets in the past year, with almost 20% admitting they hadn’t decluttered in over three years! This oversight is significant because maintaining a clean and organized medicine cabinet is crucial for ensuring the safety and well-being of everyone in your household. Properly handling and storing medicines at home involves these critical steps:
- Ensure medicines are stored securely.
- Only keep necessary and effective medications.
- Dispose of any unused or expired medicines safely.
Why is Good Storage of Medicines So Important?
Top priority: Protecting children and pets
The most important rule for storing medicines is to keep them out of reach of children and pets. While not all medications are harmful, it’s better to be safe than sorry. It’s a risk you don’t want to take, like finding an empty medicine bottle next to your child and having to rush to the hospital. Children are naturally curious and can put themselves at risk by exploring items around them. Despite looking harmless, many medicines can have serious health consequences if eaten accidentally.
The primary concern with safeguarding medications is the risk of poisoning. Commonly used over-the-counter drugs like pain relievers and cold medicine can be harmful to children, even in small amounts. Additionally, due to their resemblance to candy, children might mistake medicines for treats, leading to them swallowing dangerous substances.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that in a single year, nearly 50,000 children were rushed to emergency rooms due to accidental medication poisoning. This concerning data underscores the importance of storing all medications in cabinets or containers that are out of reach and in the sight of curious youngsters.
To prevent accidents, medicines should be stored in their original child-resistant packaging when not in use. If the medication comes with a locking cap, ensure it is securely closed by turning it until you can’t twist anymore or hear a click. If you need to use containers like pill organizers, ensure they are child-resistant, as many are not and can be easily opened by young hands.
Secondly, paying attention to storage conditions is crucial. Avoid storing medications in bathrooms or kitchens due to temperature and humidity fluctuations. Opt for a cupboard or drawer in the main bedroom, as it’s convenient and less accessible to wandering hands. Additionally, when only necessary medications are stored, locating urgently needed medicines becomes easier without searching through numerous boxes and faded bottles.
Thirdly, when storing current doses of medications outside of their original packaging, like in weekly pill organizers, it’s essential to keep them in a secure place – ideally one that can be locked. It’s best not to leave them out where they’re easily accessible, as young children may be curious and tempted to taste them.
Finally, educating everyone in the household should also be a priority. Teaching children about the risks of medications and the importance of not handling or consuming anything without adult supervision can help prevent accidents and ensure that everyone understands how crucial medication safety is.
Why is Identifying Expired Medications So Important?
The FDA has emphasized on its webpage, “Don’t Be Tempted to Use Expired Medicines,” that “once the expiration date has passed, there is no guarantee that the medicine will be safe and effective. If your medicine has expired, do not use it.” The procedure is not complicated:
- Check all expiration dates. They are usually printed on the medicine packaging in the format MM/YY (meaning the medicine expires on the last day of that month and year). Sometimes, the letters “EXP” can appear immediately before or after the date. Prescription drugs must have an expiration date printed on the package, and most over-the-counter medicines and herbal or dietary supplements will also have one. Liquid medications like eye drops and syrups must have it on the bottle or tube. Even sunscreens (at least the quality ones from international manufacturers) usually have a “use-by” date.
- Keep the medication in its original packaging. This helps avoid confusion and ensures you can precisely see the expiry date. This is especially crucial for tablets or capsules that come in sheets. Most people remove a sheet from the box to take doses out individually, but once you’ve done that and don’t return the sheet to the box, there’s no expiry date printed on the sheet, so the necessary info is lost.
- There are some special considerations for specific forms of medications. Many creams and ointments are hermetically sealed in tubes and can only be safely used for a specified number of days after the seal is broken. The same goes for the wide range of new self-injectable medications (such as those for diabetes and weight loss) that come in pre-filled pens. Once the first dose has been taken, which requires a seal to be broken, the pen should only be used for the designated length of time it takes to deliver all doses according to the schedule. For example, an opened Ozempic pen can be stored in the refrigerator or at room temperature for up to eight weeks after first use. After this, the pen should be discarded even if some medication is left.
- Handling loose tablets needs special rules. If tablets or pills have been popped out of their blisters on a sheet, they could deteriorate much faster than when they were sealed away from humidity and moisture. It’s safer to assume that pills left out of the blister for an unknown length are no longer safe or potent, and this overrides the expiry date.
Why is Proper Disposal of Medication So Important?
There are a few reasons why proper disposal is so important:
- Prevent misuse
Some discardable drugs are sought after by third parties, and people will go through the garbage (or break into your home) to find them. This is especially the case for addictive and habit-forming drugs like opioids and other strong painkillers, central nervous system depressants (barbiturates and benzodiazepines that are prescribed for anxiety or sleep problems), and stimulants prescribed for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Don’t simply throw them out where they can be salvaged from open spaces. - Protect the environment
Drugs are beneficial in small doses. But remember that they are chemicals, and dumping what you may think of as a small batch into the garbage or flushing it down the drain or toilet could happen simultaneously in millions of other households. Environmental studies have shown that flushed medications flow into our water supply. They impact the fish we eat and the water we drink. When discarded in the trash, medications leach into the soil, contaminate it, or release poisonous gases into the air when they break up. All of this can add up to a torrent of complex and potentially toxic environmental chemicals. - Reduce clutter and risk of wrong use.
The more medicines you have lying around at home, the greater the risk that they may cause injury if used incorrectly or accidentally. That’s why it makes sense to keep only what you need and store it in a safe place.
How to Dispose of Medications Safely
Most over-the-counter and prescription drugs can be disposed of at a local pharmacy. If you have liquids, make sure to place them in a self-sealing bag before putting them in the pharmacy’s medication disposal box. You can leave medications in their original containers with the assurance that all medicines will be anonymous.
There may be instances where you can’t return the particular types of drugs that we mentioned above, like opioids and stimulants, to a pharmacist or drop-off facility. In that case, the FDA advises mixing them with dirt or kitty litter and then sealing the mixture in a container before throwing the medicines away in the household trash. However, flushing some medicines down a toilet or sink is explicitly recommended because they could be especially harmful or even fatal if taken accidentally. You can find a list of treatments recommended for disposal by flushing on the Disposal of Unused Medicines webpage.
Gettin rid of old drugs the right way.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, improperly disposed drugs can end up in the water system so you’ll want to dispose of them responsibly. The Drug Enforcement Administration offers a national drug take-back day twice yearly, the next one being October 26th. There’s also a search option for year-round drug drop-off locations near you. If you can’t get to one of those locations, the FDA has instructions for safely disposing of drugs in the trash.
Conclusion
Cleaning the medicine cabinet is not only about getting rid of clutter. It’s about keeping the family and visitors to your home safe and preventing accidental poisoning. Move cleaning out the medicine cabinet up to the top of your to-do list, and make sure you try to do it every six months to a year. It only takes a few minutes! Following these guidelines ensures that your medications are stored, used, and disposed of safely, protecting your loved ones and the environment.
