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Daily Dose: How Safe are Those Old Pills?

Aired August 28, 2003 - 11:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In today's "Daily Does" we're looking a close look in your medicine cabinet. Have you ever picked up a medication, noticed the expiration date has passed and wondered, Can I still use this? Well CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us with some answers. This is a pretty serious issue, potentially, isn't it?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is serious because I think all of us have expired medicines in our medical cabinet.

As a little sort of experiment here at CNN we had two producers go in their medicine cabinets and they that found all of these medicines had expired. And this is only a sampling, they actually found more. And it's pretty incredible.

These two, the eye drops and these vitamins, expired in April of this year. This cream here and these ear drops expired in early 2002 and this ibuprofen expired in 2002, in early 2002. And here's my own personal favorite. This Tylenol here expired in 1998. What it is still doing in her medicine cabinet, I don't know.

But the truth is is that people don't go through their medicine cabinet and throw stuff out. The big question is do you need to be throwing stuff out? Well the military wondered that. They were sitting on this huge surplus of medicine and they said, Gosh, do we need to throw all of this away? It would have been millions of dollars.

And so they did their own testing. They tested 312 drugs and many were perfectly fine as long as nine years after the expiration date. Well that made the American Medical Association and others wonder do people need to throw things away at that expiration date? How serious are those dates? And they asked pharmaceutical companies to help study this issue to help kind of figure that out.

WHITFIELD: So what is the best way to store some this medicine if perhaps you are going keep it for a while and not toss it immediately?

COHEN: Well you actually should toss it and we'll get to that in a minute.

But there are ways to store it to keep it at its full potency and to keep it safe. And that actually is what the military does and may be one reason why so many of their medicines were in such good shape. You do not want to store it in a bathroom or in a refrigerator unless specified. The reason for that is that bathrooms and refrigerators are humid and bathrooms get really hot and cold when you take a shower and then get cold. that's not good for medicines. Medicines don't like that.

You do want to store it in a dry, cool place which is what the military does which again might explain why they had such long expiration dates.

(CROSSTALK)

COHEN: Everyone puts it in their bathroom, but, no, not a good place.

WHITFIELD: Medicine cabinet in the bathroom, natural place to put it.

COHEN: Right, no, put it some place else.

WHITFIELD: Oh, OK. All right so what do you do if you do notice that you have an expiration of last year or a few years ago, do you need to throw it away right away?

COHEN: You do need to throw it away. And it's unfortunate but it's just there no study says it's OK to keep them. There is an excellent chance that the medicine even though it's expired is OK, but there are some that can be toxic if you keep them around for so long.

For example, uncoated tablets can disintegrate. Actually that's not toxic, but they can disintegrate and they don't work as well. Advil, nitroglycerin both of those can evaporate. And tetracycline, which is an antibiotic, is one example of a medicine that actually can be toxic if you keep it around for too long.

Now we said to some experts who study this issue, Do you throw all of your stuff away when it expired? And they said, Well to tell you the truth we sometimes stretch things. Guilty as charged. But they said you really do need to throw it away. Again, an excellent chance it's OK, but you never know.

WHITFIELD: And if it doesn't become toxic, some things just lose their potency.

COHEN: Exactly. And so you have a terrible headache and you took the Advil that expired and you still have a headache. How about that?

WHITFIELD: Well I hope my mom is listening because often times I go home and I look up in the cabinet, And, Mom, it's time to throw this away. This expired three years ago.

COHEN: Right. And now you can say you know that you're right.

WHITFIELD: That's right. All right. Thanks a lot.

COHEN: Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired August 28, 2003 - 11:41   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In today's "Daily Does" we're looking a close look in your medicine cabinet. Have you ever picked up a medication, noticed the expiration date has passed and wondered, Can I still use this? Well CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us with some answers. This is a pretty serious issue, potentially, isn't it?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is serious because I think all of us have expired medicines in our medical cabinet.

As a little sort of experiment here at CNN we had two producers go in their medicine cabinets and they that found all of these medicines had expired. And this is only a sampling, they actually found more. And it's pretty incredible.

These two, the eye drops and these vitamins, expired in April of this year. This cream here and these ear drops expired in early 2002 and this ibuprofen expired in 2002, in early 2002. And here's my own personal favorite. This Tylenol here expired in 1998. What it is still doing in her medicine cabinet, I don't know.

But the truth is is that people don't go through their medicine cabinet and throw stuff out. The big question is do you need to be throwing stuff out? Well the military wondered that. They were sitting on this huge surplus of medicine and they said, Gosh, do we need to throw all of this away? It would have been millions of dollars.

And so they did their own testing. They tested 312 drugs and many were perfectly fine as long as nine years after the expiration date. Well that made the American Medical Association and others wonder do people need to throw things away at that expiration date? How serious are those dates? And they asked pharmaceutical companies to help study this issue to help kind of figure that out.

WHITFIELD: So what is the best way to store some this medicine if perhaps you are going keep it for a while and not toss it immediately?

COHEN: Well you actually should toss it and we'll get to that in a minute.

But there are ways to store it to keep it at its full potency and to keep it safe. And that actually is what the military does and may be one reason why so many of their medicines were in such good shape. You do not want to store it in a bathroom or in a refrigerator unless specified. The reason for that is that bathrooms and refrigerators are humid and bathrooms get really hot and cold when you take a shower and then get cold. that's not good for medicines. Medicines don't like that.

You do want to store it in a dry, cool place which is what the military does which again might explain why they had such long expiration dates.

(CROSSTALK)

COHEN: Everyone puts it in their bathroom, but, no, not a good place.

WHITFIELD: Medicine cabinet in the bathroom, natural place to put it.

COHEN: Right, no, put it some place else.

WHITFIELD: Oh, OK. All right so what do you do if you do notice that you have an expiration of last year or a few years ago, do you need to throw it away right away?

COHEN: You do need to throw it away. And it's unfortunate but it's just there no study says it's OK to keep them. There is an excellent chance that the medicine even though it's expired is OK, but there are some that can be toxic if you keep them around for so long.

For example, uncoated tablets can disintegrate. Actually that's not toxic, but they can disintegrate and they don't work as well. Advil, nitroglycerin both of those can evaporate. And tetracycline, which is an antibiotic, is one example of a medicine that actually can be toxic if you keep it around for too long.

Now we said to some experts who study this issue, Do you throw all of your stuff away when it expired? And they said, Well to tell you the truth we sometimes stretch things. Guilty as charged. But they said you really do need to throw it away. Again, an excellent chance it's OK, but you never know.

WHITFIELD: And if it doesn't become toxic, some things just lose their potency.

COHEN: Exactly. And so you have a terrible headache and you took the Advil that expired and you still have a headache. How about that?

WHITFIELD: Well I hope my mom is listening because often times I go home and I look up in the cabinet, And, Mom, it's time to throw this away. This expired three years ago.

COHEN: Right. And now you can say you know that you're right.

WHITFIELD: That's right. All right. Thanks a lot.

COHEN: Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com