| ■ Outdated Meds Pose Problems If Kept or Tossed | 2010.06.25 |
| FRIDAY, June 25 (HealthDay News) -- It's a common find in medicine cabinets and bathroom drawers: a prescription vial containing years-old medication or an over-the-counter cold remedy that's embarrassingly past its sell-by date. But unless they're spring-cleaning, many people don't bother throwing away these items. And when they do, people often turn to the toilet and flush the products away. Both behaviors are big mistakes. Keeping out-of-date medications in the house poses dangers to everyone in the family. And flushing old medications down the toilet can be harmful to the environment. Old drugs and remedies kept moldering in the medicine cabinet may not be able to help you when you need them the most. Someone with severe asthma, for instance, might reach for an inhaler during an asthma attack only to find that it's full of expired medication, Delafuente said. "That could put them in the emergency department, or they could die from the attack," he said. Old medications also pose an overdose hazard. Statistics from the American Association of Poison Control Centers show that most childhood poisonings are due to ingestion of over-the-counter medicines or prescription drugs. |