By Doug Worgul,Knight Ridder Newspapers

If you’d never open your refrigerator and pop the top on the milk jug – two weeks past its expiration date – and chug it down, then why would you open your medicine cabinet and pop a pill that’s two months – worse yet, two years – past its expiration date?

Mary Ross, pharmacy supervisor at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, poses that not-so-rhetorical question to make a point: People tend to take the expiration dates on their food products much more seriously than expiration dates on their prescription and over-the-counter drugs.

“But, over time, the chemical makeup and potency of medications changes,” Ross said. “Taking outdated medications may also mean you are taking a pill that is not going to help you. Many medications become ineffective past their expiration date. Heat, cold and moisture can also affect a medication’s potency.”

Ross says this is why it’s important to check the contents of your medicine cabinet regularly.

Janet Engle agrees. Engle is clinical professor of pharmacy practice at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Pharmacy.

“It’s important for people to realize that ignoring the expiration and labeling information on their medications or improperly storing medications may pose potentially harmful risks to their health,” she said. “It is important to give your medicine cabinet an annual makeover and to make sure your medicines are stored properly and have not expired.”

Ross and Engle say knowing where medications should be stored is also vital to maintaining safety and effectiveness.

The American Pharmacists Association, or APhA, recommends that consumers avoid keeping certain medications in bathroom or kitchen cabinets. APhA also states that medications should always be stored according to package directions and should be kept in their original packaging. By keeping medications in their original packaging, consumers always have easy access to full dosing instructions, drug interactions, storage instructions and expiration information

“The amber-colored prescription bottles reduce the amount of light that reaches the medicine,” Ross says. “And avoid mixing different pills in one container. They may chemically react, or you may mistakenly take the wrong pill. Keeping your medication in the original container helps ensure that you are taking the medication you intend to take and in the dosage recommended.”

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