Are poly bags a good material to store medications?

[lizfromizz]

I take my anti anxiety medication as needed (klonopin), and there are times I don't take any meds for months if not years so I would like to preserve them as best as I could:

 

So basically I am looking for long term storage of my medication and I believe poly bags, (the ones that say 100% virgin polyethylene film) are made out of polyethylene which is chemically inert, which possibly means its a perfect long term storage bag for medicine.

 

However, I am no expert so I just wanted to confirm this with someone knowledgeable in this. Am I correct? I will put my meds into a poly bag, and wrap that into a foodsaver bag and vacuum seal. The foodsaver bag is made out of polyethylene & Nylon. (The medicine will only touch the poly bag and not the foodsaver bag).

 

What do you guys think?

 

Also does it matter which type of poly bag i purchase or are they all chemically inert? there seems to be different descriptions such as: ..."100% virgin High Clarity Polyethylene Film" or "100% virgin High Density Polythylene (HDPE)" or "100% virgin Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE)"

[swansont]

This is just an educated guess, but I think that pill bottles being opaque or at least yellow or brown is meant to help shield the meds from UV, a functionality you may lose with a poly bag.

[Phi for All]

This is just an educated guess, but I think that pill bottles being opaque or at least yellow or brown is meant to help shield the meds from UV, a functionality you may lose with a poly bag.

So if the pills are left in the bottle, they could be sealed airtight any way liz wants and still have the protection the manufacturer intended. Then there are no worries about poly bags and whether they can touch the meds.

[John Cuthber]

You should get the doctor who prescribed them, or the pharmacist who supplied them, to ask the manufacturer how long they will last for.

Some medications will last for years- others won't.

[lizfromizz]

So if the pills are left in the bottle, they could be sealed airtight any way liz wants and still have the protection the manufacturer intended. Then there are no worries about poly bags and whether they can touch the meds.

 

I am storing my meds in a wine cooler for optimal temperatures, but the catch is they are very humid inside.

 

Vacuum sealing is the only way to protect against moisture getting inside.. a regular air tight prescription bottle is not as secure as a vacuum sealed container. So I am trying to research if poly bags would be good material to store meds in...

 

I would basically put my meds into a poly bag, and then wrap that around a foodsaver bag and vacuum seal it. My only question is, I am not sure if a poly bag would be suitable for long term meds storage. I am actually open to alternative materials (I can vacuum seal) if anyone knows any...

 

This is just an educated guess, but I think that pill bottles being opaque or at least yellow or brown is meant to help shield the meds from UV, a functionality you may lose with a poly bag.

 

Swansont, yeah that is a drawback from using a poly bag but easily fixed (just storing the bag in a dark place would do). However, the question is, are poly bags (virgin polyethylene) suitable for long term storage of meds? As in, would it chemically react with my meds or would it be a perfect material for medication storage?

[lizfromizz]

You should get the doctor who prescribed them, or the pharmacist who supplied them, to ask the manufacturer how long they will last for.

Some medications will last for years- others won't.

 

 

Hi John, I guess my question is not how long my medication will last... I just want to make sure I am storing it in suitable material. Ex: are poly bags suitable material for storing my meds?

 

I am reading a lot on Mylar bags also, and wondering if this would also be suitable storage? Mylar I believe is polyester and one of the best chemically inert long term storage material for food, not sure about meds...

[Phi for All]

Liz, is there some reason you don't want to keep the pills in the bottle the pharmacist recommends for UV and impact protection, and then just seal the bottle in the vacuum bag you're talking about so moisture and air don't get to the pills?

[alpha2cen]

Oxygen and water permeability is important factors to select it.

Low oxygen and water permeability poly back is good for storing it.

Radiation can be protected by using metal coating on the polymer surface.

Edited October 14, 2012 by alpha2cen

[lizfromizz]

Liz, is there some reason you don't want to keep the pills in the bottle the pharmacist recommends for UV and impact protection, and then just seal the bottle in the vacuum bag you're talking about so moisture and air don't get to the pills?

 

 

Hi Phi for All,

 

yes, the reason I don't want to keep them in the original bottle is they can't be vacuum sealed, so there will be air inside the bottle (which isn't good for the meds). If I use a poly bag, I can wrap that around foodsaver bag (poly + nylon) and it should have very little air. Also its more efficient (in terms of taking up space).

 

Now if there was a way to vacuum seal those bottles, that would be a different story but I believe it isnt possible. However you did bring a good point. I guess the alternative would be to just put those bottles into mylar bags with o2 absorbers.

 

But I guess I just wanted an official confirmation from someone well versed with chemistry- if poly bags are suitable for meds storage.

 

Oxygen and water permeability is important factors to select it.

Low oxygen and water permeability poly back is good for storing it.

Radiation can be protected by using metal coating on the polymer surface.

 

 

Alpha2cen, thank you for your input. Yes I believe mylar bags and glass mason jars would be the strongest barriers one can vacuum seal or use o2 absorbers. (oxygen and water permability)

 

So basically you are officially confirming that poly bags are suitable long term storage for medications? (I would put my meds into poly bags and vacuum seal over them with foodsaver bags and store them into mylar bags or glass jars).

Edited October 21, 2012 by lizfromizz

[CharonY]

Just as a sidenote, none of the responses on this (or any other public forum for that matter) are "official" in any way. Some responses are extrapolations of existing knowledge, some may come from experience. That being said, major degradation effects are, as already mentioned, due to light, temperature, humidity and oxidation, depending on the composition. One good way to store is using a desiccator (essentially a jar that has a sorbent material such as silica, and flush it with an inert gas, such as nitrogen.

 

PET such as mylar are decent gas and water permeability barriers, but you should be aware that a bit is still leaking through. They are for instance not suitable where you truly need anoxic conditions. Over years stuff is bound to happen.

[daisyprincess]

The question was asked what was the best way to store medications. I replied, but I inserted the opinion that I don't think that it would be a good idea to vacuum seal pills as they might explode. What I was talking about was capsules, medications sealed in gelatin shells. I reasoned that the air inside of the capsule might expand enough to cause the capsule to come apart. Carborendum replied that they would never explode, but I think that he was talking about liquid medications and their actually exploding. I clarified my statement, but it got me to thinking...do I actually know what I am talking about? I hate unsubstantiated claims--and I had just made one--but sometimes a sound, well reasoned opinion is the best that we can do.

Well, in this case I can do one better, I can test it out. Will a medication capsule stored under vacuum come apart? Apparently not.

Background. Pills come in two general forms: powders that have been compressed into solid tablets and powders that are poured into a shell. There are a lot of other forms ("fast melts," "rapid release gel," etc) but these two are the most common and most others are variations upon these forms. The pills made of powders that have been poured into a shell are usually called capsules (to get real confusing, tablets that are elongated with a rounded cross-section are often called caplets). Capsule shells are often made of gelatin, and you can buy empty ones on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&keyword ... les&page=1 Why would you buy empty gelatin shells? Some pharmacies compound their own drugs, some people will compound drugs for animals, and they can be useful for holding really small items that you don't want to lose/crush.). The two halves of these shells fit tightly together, one inside of the other. I hypothesized that they will fit so tightly together that the air trapped inside of the shell will cause the two halves to come apart if the capsules are subjected to vacuum.

I choose nine pills/capsules made by various manufactures, all of current, unexpired stock to experiment with. These included six different antibiotics, one anti-seizure medication, one anti-diarrheal, and one stomach acid reducer.

I placed these pills in one of my Food Saver canisters and sucked the air out. I had considered using a pill bottle and vacuum sealing bag, but I was afraid that the lid to the bottle might be pushed down and seal in some of the air.

During the vacuum sealing process, some of the pills appeared to swell. However, all remained intact. After 30 minutes, they were still intact so I shook them vigorously. No change. I waited an hour, shook them again. Nothing, all of the pills remained intact.

 

At two hours after I initially vacuum sealed the pills, I again shook them with no change. I then released the vacuum and resealed the canister five times. Each time, I could see some of the pills swell slightly, but they all remained intact.

As best as I can tell, vacuum sealing pills will not harm them. I do think that there is a risk that, given the slight swelling, that the gelatin shells may weaken and fail over time, but I did not test for that. I honestly can see only marginal benefits to vacuum sealing medications: yes, it will keep out humidity and oxygen, but the factors of temperature, light, and time will remain unaffected. I think that if it substantially enhanced shelf life at least some manufacturers would be packaging medications like this. (As an aside, some medications are vacuum sealed by the manufacturer. However, these are usually powders that have to be reconsistuted for IV injection.)

Personally, I am not going to change the way that I store my medications. I keep them in the original packaging, inside of plastic tubs with silica gel packets, in the back of my closet where the temperature seems to remain pretty steady. Ideally, I would like to have them in there own temperature/humidity controlled room, but I don't have the resources for that.