Check out Rolling Stones latest political news and features covering todays hottest political topics and Matt Taibbis take. In 1990, Susan Orlean published a book called Saturday Night, in which she set out to document how Americans spend their weekly reprieve from work. Sa. The Myth of Drug Expiration Dates Pro. Publica. This story was co published with NPRs Shots blog. The box of prescription drugs had been forgotten in a back closet of a retail pharmacy for so long that some of the pills predated the 1. Most were 3. 0 to 4. But to Lee Cantrell, who helps run the California Poison Control System, the cache was an opportunity to answer an enduring question about the actual shelf life of drugs Could these drugs from the bell bottom era still be potentCantrell called Roy Gerona, a University of California, San Francisco, researcher who specializes in analyzing chemicals. Gerona had grown up in the Philippines and had seen people recover from sickness by taking expired drugs with no apparent ill effects. This was very cool, Gerona says. Who gets the chance of analyzing drugs that have been in storage for more than 3. The age of the drugs might have been bizarre, but the question the researchers wanted to answer wasnt. Myth Defense 2 Full Version' title='Myth Defense 2 Full Version' />Pharmacies across the country in major medical centers and in neighborhood strip malls routinely toss out tons of scarce and potentially valuable prescription drugs when they hit their expiration dates. Gerona and Cantrell, a pharmacist and toxicologist, knew that the term expiration date was a misnomer. The dates on drug labels are simply the point up to which the Food and Drug Administration and pharmaceutical companies guarantee their effectiveness, typically at two or three years. But the dates dont necessarily mean theyre ineffective immediately after they expire just that theres no incentive for drugmakers to study whether they could still be usable. Pro. Publica has been researching why the U. Horizon Zero Dawn Vs. Breath of the Wild WHICH IS BETTER Subscribe http Lets be honest, whatever we pick, youre gonna lose your sh. Common Myths Misconceptions The worlds most widespread falsehoods debunked 1 Myth There is no evidence 2 Myth They already have the guy 3 Myth The prosecution case was based on the theory of a satanic ritual 4 Myth Amanda Knoxs. The Myth of the Kindly General Lee. The legend of the Confederate leaders heroism and decency is based in the fiction of a person who never existed. The. 22 mag is an excellent cartridge, one of my favorite rifles is a modified bolt action marlin that i had the barrel taken down to 16 12 inches. S. health care system is the most expensive in the world. One answer, broadly, is waste some of it buried in practices that the medical establishment and the rest of us take for granted. Weve documented how hospitals often discard pricey new supplies, how nursing homes trash valuable medications after patients pass away or move out, and how drug companies create expensive combinations of cheap drugs. Experts estimate such squandering eats up about 7. Netscape Communicator 4.06. What if the system is destroying drugs that are technically expired but could still be safely used In his lab, Gerona ran tests on the decades old drugs, including some now defunct brands such as the diet pills Obocell once pitched to doctors with a portly figurine called Mr. Obocell and Bamadex. Overall, the bottles contained 1. All the drugs tested were in their original sealed containers. The findings surprised both researchers A dozen of the 1. Lo and behold, Cantrell says, The active ingredients are pretty darn stable. Cantrell and Gerona knew their findings had big implications. Perhaps no area of health care has provoked as much anger in recent years as prescription drugs. The news media is rife with stories of medications priced out of reach or of shortages of crucial drugs, sometimes because producing them is no longer profitable. Tossing such drugs when they expire is doubly hard. One pharmacist at Newton Wellesley Hospital outside Boston says the 2. A commentary in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings cited similar losses at the nearby Tufts Medical Center. Play that out at hospitals across the country and the tab is significant about 8. And that doesnt include the costs of expired drugs at long term care pharmacies, retail pharmacies and in consumer medicine cabinets. After Cantrell and Gerona published their findings in Archives of Internal Medicine in 2. OK to take expired drugs. Cantrell says they werent recommending the use of expired medication, just reviewing the arbitrary way the dates are set. Free Download Online Tv Player Pro Crack more. Refining our prescription drug dating process could save billions, he says. But after a brief burst of attention, the response to their study faded. That raises an even bigger question If some drugs remain effective well beyond the date on their labels, why hasnt there been a push to extend their expiration dates It turns out that the FDA, the agency that helps set the dates, has long known the shelf life of some drugs can be extended, sometimes by years. In fact, the federal government has saved a fortune by doing this. For decades, the federal government has stockpiled massive stashes of medication, antidotes and vaccines in secure locations throughout the country. The drugs are worth tens of billions of dollars and would provide a first line of defense in case of a large scale emergency. Maintaining these stockpiles is expensive. The drugs have to be kept secure and at the proper humidity and temperature so they dont degrade. Luckily, the country has rarely needed to tap into many of the drugs, but this means they often reach their expiration dates. Though the government requires pharmacies to throw away expired drugs, it doesnt always follow these instructions itself. Instead, for more than 3. The idea that drugs expire on specified dates goes back at least a half century, when the FDA began requiring manufacturers to add this information to the label. The time limits allow the agency to ensure medications work safely and effectively for patients. To determine a new drugs shelf life, its maker zaps it with intense heat and soaks it with moisture to see how it degrades under stress. It also checks how it breaks down over time. The drug company then proposes an expiration date to the FDA, which reviews the data to ensure it supports the date and approves it. Despite the difference in drugs makeup, most expire after two or three years. Cantrell keeps a collection of old bottles of chemicals and medicines. Hes tested some of them and found that theyre still potent. Sandy Huffaker for Pro. PublicaOnce a drug is launched, the makers run tests to ensure it continues to be effective up to its labeled expiration date. Since they are not required to check beyond it, most dont, largely because regulations make it expensive and time consuming for manufacturers to extend expiration dates, says Yan Wu, an analytical chemist who is part of a focus group at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists that looks at the long term stability of drugs. Most companies, she says, would rather sell new drugs and develop additional products. Pharmacists and researchers say there is no economic win for drug companies to investigate further. They ring up more sales when medications are tossed as expired by hospitals, retail pharmacies and consumers despite retaining their safety and effectiveness. Industry officials say patient safety is their highest priority. Olivia Shopshear, director of science and regulatory advocacy for the drug industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or Ph. RMA, says expiration dates are chosen based on the period of time when any given lot will maintain its identity, potency and purity, which translates into safety for the patient. That being said, its an open secret among medical professionals that many drugs maintain their ability to combat ailments well after their labels say they dont. One pharmacist says he sometimes takes home expired over the counter medicine from his pharmacy so he and his family can use it. The federal agencies that stockpile drugs including the military, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Veterans Affairs have long realized the savings in revisiting expiration dates.