What if I use an old inhaler past its expiration (use by) date? Is it dangerous for health? What are some issues which may occur?
Hi everyone this is dr stefan i received this interesting comment on my channel what if i inhaled an expired inhaler without realizing it was already past its expiration date so i think the person who asked who’s asked me this question is worried that that might cause illness or problems down the line now i would just have to say that sometimes with inhalers we
Tend to worry quite a lot so patients tend to worry quite a lot if they’re taking them correctly if the medication inside will cause side effects first of all i’d like to say that inhalers generally have a very very low concentration of medication and obviously although it’s not a good idea to take a medication that’s past its expiration date i don’t recommend that
But if you accidentally do inhale from an old puffer from an old inhaler it’s likely not to cause major problems especially if that inhaler was kept in under normal conditions so under normal storage conditions if you’ve been keeping it at room temperature or you know as directed it’s likely not to cause any issues because like i said the medication doses are very
Very low and the medications inside the inhalers are usually relatively stable they won’t degrade as quickly as you know it it’s not like a cut-off date so when the expiration date falls it’s not like the medication will suddenly become completely inactive or toxic two days after so that’s not really an issue but obviously if you your inhaler has expired i would
Suggest going and getting a replacement the highest risk i would say would be that the medication is no longer effective after a while so if it’s been months since that inhaler has expired i would say it’s probably no longer going to be as effective as you might want it’s unlikely to be toxic it’s unlikely that one dose from an inhaler that has expired will cause
Major problems but like i said it’s not a good idea to continue taking expired medication because it’s probably not going to be going to be effective so in that case do talk to your doctor about getting a replacement or talk to your pharmacist if you if you have a prescription already but do keep track of expiration dates of your products normally all medications
That you buy especially with inhalers are usually good for a few months at least after you’ve purchased it otherwise it wouldn’t have been sold to you so i would assume that it’s relatively safe if you don’t check every time but maybe if you haven’t taken that inhaler for years and you suddenly fish it out from a drawer or something maybe have a look at when it
Expires if you need to use it and if you do suffer with conditions such as asthma where this can be a common occurrence for example you’ve been prescribed a ventilating inhaler as needed your asthma is not really bad and potentially you’ve gone for a year without any inhaler but then you’ve gone somewhere you’ve inhaled some some allergen or some irritant substance
And your asthma is coming back it might be a good idea to just check before you take your inhaler obviously if you’ve had one somewhere lingering around the house and maybe to just get a replacement then i would say with asthma keep track of having an inhaler that doesn’t go out of date in the next six months i think that’s probably a reasonable thing to do to make
Sure that what you’re having around the house is still in date hopefully that was helpful i’m not sure i think i’ve been a little bit all over the place with this explanation but i would say just to conclude don’t worry too much if you’ve accidentally taken a dose of an inhaler that’s out of date it’s probably not going to cause too much problem but i would say
Do look for a replacement as soon as possible because that’s probably the sensible thing to do and if you have any issues with your breathing discuss with your doctor especially if the treatments you are on aren’t helping hope that was all right and helpful for you and i’ll see you in future videos all the best
Transcribed from video
What happens if I use an expired inhaler? By Dr. Stefan Cristian Stanel