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Expiration dates are important for determining the freshness and safety of many products. The box of cereal and can of soup I purchased at the grocery today have them. And as you know, medicines are given expiration dates too. Typically, the shelf life of a medicine is that period during which the potency of the medication drops a certain amount -- often 10 percent. It can be less than this 10 percent figure when a drug is not effective unless a very precise amount of medicine is delivered in each dose. Conversely, if the dosage of the drug is less crucial, the potency of the drug can drop more than 10 percent and still be effective. How long it takes for a drug to drop a certain percentage of its strength is influenced by the chemistry of the active and inactive ingredients. The condition in which a medicine is stored also influences its shelf life. Most are given a shelf life assuming that they will be stored in a 70-degree medicine cabinet in a closed container. Heat, humidity, air circulation and sunlight can dramatically shorten the shelf life of most medicines. In other words, don't expect that open bottle of aspirin that has been rattling around in your car for two years to be much good. Each manufacturer submits information supporting its request for a shelf life of "X" number of years to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA makes its decision about allowable shelf life based upon this manufacturer input, but that doesn't imply that the product suddenly becomes useless or turns into a deadly poison at the hour of expiration. Instead, it usually means that the manufacturer only collected data about the shelf life for that period of time. Most drug manufacturers desire a two-year shelf life because that gives adequate leeway for the "production-distribution-consumption" cycle to be completed. Your prescription medicines, including your antibiotics, probably had about a two-year expiration date from the time of their production. Your pharmacist puts a one-year expiration date on your particular bottle of medicine because of the time that has lapsed since production as well as the uncontrolled variables in storage outside the pharmacy. The practice is followed to increase the likelihood that the medicines you take are of the proper potency and quality. Not all products have expiration dates. The rubbing alcohol you mentioned is one of them. Medically related products that are stable for at least three years, as alcohol is, are exempt from the labeling rule. Homeopathic and herbal products are exempted as are some investigational drugs and allergy extracts that have no established potency standards.

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