Leave a pharmacy bag on the passenger seat while you run into the store, and on a hot day you may be cooking your prescriptions. The inside of a parked car can climb past 120 degrees Fahrenheit, or 49 Celsius, within minutes in summer, even when it is not brutally hot outside, and that kind of heat can change the chemistry of certain drugs so they no longer work the way they should. The Spanish-language outlet El Diario laid out which medications are most at risk, drawing on guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the American Diabetes Association.
The FDA warns that heat, humidity and direct sun can damage some medications, and it recommends storing them according to the manufacturer’s instructions and keeping them out of a car, especially during the warmest months.
Insulin tops the list. It is one of the most heat-sensitive medications there is, and a few hours inside a hot vehicle can strip away part of its effectiveness. The American Diabetes Association recommends keeping insulin within the temperature range the manufacturer specifies and never leaving it in the car during the summer.
Pressurized asthma inhalers are also vulnerable. The FDA says these devices should not be exposed to temperatures higher than what is printed on the packaging, because excessive heat can alter the pressurized canister and even raise the risk that it is damaged.
EpiPens and other epinephrine autoinjectors, the shots people carry for severe allergic reactions, need to be protected from extreme heat too. Manufacturers say to store them at room temperature and to avoid both intense heat and freezing.
Liquid medications round out the group. Suspension antibiotics, syrups and some pediatric medications can deteriorate after a long stretch in a hot car, sometimes changing color or consistency or losing their chemical stability. Hormone treatments, biologic medications and injectable products need controlled temperatures the whole time they are stored, and prolonged heat can cut their effectiveness even when the medication still looks normal.
If you have to travel with medications in the summer, the advice is to keep them in the air-conditioned cabin rather than the trunk, use a thermal bag when the manufacturer allows it, keep them out of direct sun, avoid leaving them in the car even for a few minutes, and check the storage conditions listed on the packaging.
You cannot always tell just by looking whether a medication has lost its potency. The FDA recommends checking with your pharmacist or the manufacturer if you suspect a medication sat in extreme heat for a long time. In some cases it may need to be replaced to keep the treatment safe and effective. The American Diabetes Association keeps its own guidance for people managing diabetes at diabetes.org.
Featured image: Bushwick Daily image
