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We recently received a shipment of baking supplies that included chocolate chips. Needless to say, what we actually received was a chocolate mess.
The chips had melted in the heat. We should have known better than to order chocolate by mail in the summertime.
Most people realize that there are some things that should not be shipped in hot weather. They include wine, fish and chocolate. That's because they are all heat sensitive.
So are most medications. The official prescribing information sanctioned by the Food and Drug Administration often specifies storage at room temperature (68 to 77 degrees). "During shipping, temporary fluctuations are allowed between 50 and 86 F."
Ask any delivery driver if the back of the truck gets warmer than 86 degrees in the summertime and they are likely to laugh at you. Some have gone so far as to post photos of thermometers in the cargo compartment. These can reach 120 degrees or even higher.
Once a medicine is delivered, it may sit in a hot mailbox or on a sunny front porch for hours. What does this do to the medication?
Readers of this column have shared their experiences. One person wrote: "With days of excessive heat this summer, I have been very concerned about how my medications are delivered. I live in a rural area, and my house sits back off the road in the woods. My medications are stuffed into a metal mailbox down at the road, in the sun. They usually are delivered by USPS, but sometimes by UPS or FedEx. None of the trucks are air-conditioned.
"I recently switched to a mail order firm at the prodding of my health insurance company. Prior to this, the pharmacy delivered them to my house directly. They no longer will do that."
Another reader reported: "I've measured temps as high as 118 degrees in my mailbox last summer. External temps of my neighbor's black box registered above 140 degrees here in Texas. Our mail order pharmacy has meds placed in the mailbox by default rather than ringing the doorbell."
People's personal mailboxes are not the only issue. We heard this from a reader in California: "I had the exact same thing happen with Fosamax in a hot mailbox. However, when I contacted the pharmacist at the mail order company, she informed me that it was probably OK to take the drug anyway.
"The most surprising thing was that she said she was a pharmacist for several pharmacy locations. She let me know that the drugs are delivered to pharmacies, both local and mail order, in bags in large plastic boxes in noninsulated trucks. There's no protection for drugs going cross-country. Airline transport is no better, because cargo areas are subject to extreme heat and extreme cold. People are getting compromised drugs all the time!
"This has to change. The manufacturers must package their drugs protectively; then the distributors must take care when shipping to end users. The ONLY WAY this will happen is if the FDA steps in and requires protective shipping on all drugs.
"That won't happen unless we all write our representatives and demand action on this. After all, they all probably take some kind of medication, too, so their interest in this just might get to a personal level!"
Sadly, no one is taking responsibility. The FDA has no authority over shipping. Each state could enforce shipping conditions within its borders, but not between states. Contacting Congressional representatives might be the only hope.
In their column, Joe and Teresa Graedon answer letters from readers. Write to them in care of King Features, 300 W. 57th Street, 41st Floor, New York, NY 10019, or email them via their website: www.PeoplesPharmacy.com. Their newest book is "Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them."