No, You Don't Need A Bathroom Medicine Cabinet

Parents often believe the false misconception that the best place to store their prescription medicines is in the medicine cabinet that's a common feature in many bathrooms. Here are two reasons why you need to get your meds out of the bathroom cabinet and into a portable medication lock box.

Cool, Dry Place

The moist and humid conditions that characterize bathroom areas can have a negative effect on prescription drugs stored in the medicine cabinet. When tablets get exposed to moist and humid conditions, they disintegrate. This interferes with the effectiveness of the medicine. When syrups are constantly exposed to excess humidity, their chemical stability is likely to be affected. This would also limit the effectiveness of using such medication to treat various ailments.

The storage instructions on many prescription drugs clearly dictate that the meds should be stored in a cool, dry place. Storing prescription drugs in a bathroom cabinet is an outright violation of this instruction. The medical lock box might be the exact definition of a cool dry place. These boxes are often made of galvanized steel. Steel is known for its superior moisture resistance and this explains why residential drainage pipes will often be made of steel. Also, steel does not absorb heat when left exposed to the air. With a steel medication lock box, you're sure that you'll have stored your medicines in a cool, dry place.

Also, a portable lock box makes it easy for you to move your medication around when temperatures get too hot (e.g. during the summer). When indoor temperatures are too high, you could easily remove the lockbox from the drawer and place it in a shaded area of the bedroom, where the temperature is likely to be slightly lower (e.g. under the bed). When temperatures normalize, returning the lockbox into the drawer should also be a breeze because galvanized steel is a relatively lightweight material.

Child Poisoning

Another problem with using the bathroom cabinet for storage of prescription drugs is that the same cabinet is often used to store toothbrushes, toothpaste and bathing soap among other supplies that your children will need to access on daily basis. Because children are naturally curious, you can't rule out the possibility that the packaging on prescription drugs (or on vitamin supplements) won't attract their attention as they open the cabinet to get a toothbrush or to get some paste. This creates fertile ground for child poisoning as a result of prescription drug overdose.

For more information, contact professionals like Store-It-Safe.