Date on Medication Bottle?

Hi, I'm in the process of clearing out my medicine cabinet and I noitced an older perscription bottle for Tylenol 2 with a few pills inside. I'm in Canada and the bottom right of the label has a DIN # followed by a date (which may be the date I got it or the date of expiry). Should I throw this out or is it still good? The date is June 2005.





Thanks in advanced

Date on Medication Bottle?
It is almost certainly OK.





"First, the expiration date, required by law in the United States,


beginning in 1979, specifies only the date the manufacturer guarantees


the full potency and safety of the drug -- it does not mean how long the


drug is actually "good" or safe to use. Second, medical authorities


uniformly say it is safe to take drugs past their expiration date -- no


matter how "expired" the drugs purportedly are. Except for possibly the


rarest of exceptions, you won't get hurt and you certainly won't get


killed. A contested example of a rare exception is a case of renal


tubular damage purportedly caused by expired tetracycline (reported by


G. W. Frimpter and colleagues in JAMA, 1963;184:111). This outcome


(disputed by other scientists) was supposedly caused by a chemical


transformation of the active ingredient. Third, studies show that


expired drugs may lose some of their potency over time, from as little


as 5% or less to 50% or more (though usually much less than the latter).


Even 10 years after the "expiration date," most drugs have a good deal


of their original potency. So wisdom dictates that if your life does


depend on an expired drug, and you must have 100% or so of its original


strength, you should probably toss it and get a refill, in accordance


with the cliché, "better safe than sorry." If your life does not depend


on an expired drug -- such as that for headache, hay fever, or menstrual


cramps -- take it and see what happens."


http://lists.kabissa.org/lists/archives/...
Reply:Prob the date of expiry. Do u need it?? If not ur pharmacy disposes of meds. (Or they do in germany) Most meds do not become harmful but possibly ineffective if over date. The date is calculated for max worst storage conditions... on the windowstill in bright sun sort of thing:))
Reply:Throw it out. Meds generally have shelf life of one to two years.