Medicine cabinets in the bathroom

Many people still put medicine cabinets in their bathroom, but is this where you should be storing your medicines?

MEDICATION

Linda Nghiem | Pharmacist

6/12/20242 min read

a woman in a gray tank top lookin at a medicine cabinet with medicine bottles
a woman in a gray tank top lookin at a medicine cabinet with medicine bottles

How a pharmacy stores prescription medications

As my time as a pharmacist, I have come to despise the name given to the shallow bathroom cabinets. Why would you call it a medicine cabinet? It is probably one of the worst places to store your medications!

In our pharmacy, we measure the humidity and temperature to ensure that our prescription medications and compounding powders can remain stable and last until the expiry date. Once a medication leaves the pharmacy, the storage conditions of said medications are variable, to say the least. Some prescriptions are left in the car during the trip home, and we know in Edmonton, the car temperature can vary from -30 to +30 degrees Celsius or more depending on the season. Don't do that, by the way. Once it gets home, I have learned that it is common to put medications in the bathroom medicine cabinet.

Why you shouldn't store medication is the medicine cabinet

So what's wrong with storing your medications in a bathroom medicine cabinet, you ask? The bathroom has massive temperature and moisture variations. Higher moisture levels can reduce the effectiveness of medications and possibly promote microbes growing in or on it. If you are bathing or showering in that bathroom, the humidity levels can rise dramatically, more so if there is no bathroom fan venting the moisture out. Most medications should be kept at room temperature. Depending on how hot your showers or baths are, the temperature can rise above the recommended range for medications, which is between 15 - 30 degrees Celsius. These temperature and humidity variations can lead to the medications to become less or not effective much sooner than the assigned expiry date by the manufacturer.

How to properly store your medications

Where should your medications be stored? Ideally, medications should be kept at room temperature, away from moisture fluctuations and away from sunlight. That might be in your bedroom or in a cabinet. Remember that kids are curious creatures and you should keep it locked up or in a place inaccessible to them.

On a side note, there are a small number of medications that are kept in the fridge at 2-8 degree Celsius. Make sure you keep them away from the refrigerator's cooling unit, which could freeze the medications and render it unusable. Check with your pharmacist if you aren't sure.

So, that is my vent about medicine cabinets in the bathroom. We should rename them to something more appropriate, like a toothbrush cabinet or something creative like that.

Linda Nghiem

Pharmacist, Menopause Society Certified Practitioner