Where Medicines Should Actually Be Kept
The bathroom cabinet is the traditional place for medicines and it is one of the worst places in a house for them.
Heat and Humidity Degrade Them
A bathroom cycles between hot, humid steam and cool dry air several times a day.
Most medicines are labelled to be stored below a stated temperature in a dry place, and repeated humidity affects tablets and capsules in particular. Effervescent tablets and anything that absorbs moisture suffer most.
A cool dry cupboard in a bedroom or a hallway is a better environment than the room named after the cabinet.
Out of Reach and Out of Sight
- High, and ideally locked, in any household with children
- Children’s medicines too, since they taste pleasant
- Handbags and bedside drawers are the commonest unsecured locations
- Visitors’ bags are a recognised route to accidental poisoning
- Child-resistant caps slow a child down; they do not stop one
Clear stackable bins let a high shelf stay usable without rummaging, and ranges publishing dimensions per size, of the kind at bino.us.org, let a cupboard be fitted properly rather than approximately.
Keep the Packaging
Decanting tablets into an unlabelled container loses the name, the strength, the dosage instructions, the expiry date and the batch number.
If somebody is treated after taking the wrong thing, that information is what the clinician needs. Keep the original box and the patient information leaflet.
Pill organisers are useful and are not a substitute for keeping the packaging somewhere.
Check Dates Twice a Year
Attach it to something regular, such as the clock change.
Expired medicines are not necessarily dangerous and may be less effective, which matters most for anything you rely on in an emergency: inhalers, adrenaline auto-injectors and pain relief.
Disposal
Not down a toilet or a sink, and not loose in a household bin.
Pharmacies in most countries accept unused medicines for safe disposal, and that is the correct route.
Button Batteries
Worth flagging, because they live in the same drawers. Swallowed, they can burn through tissue within hours.
If a child may have swallowed one, go straight to an emergency department and say so. Do not wait for symptoms, do not induce vomiting, and do not give food or drink.
Never Share Prescriptions
Including with family members with apparently the same problem.
Keep a First Aid Kit Separate
Findable, and checked occasionally so the contents are still usable.