As reported by Dziennik Polski, out of 360 thousand facilities in Poland where we can buy drugs, only some of them store drugs in appropriate conditions. After a heat wave, many of them may not only lose their healing properties, but even harm.
Virtually every package of drugs has information on the temperature at which the agent should be stored. This is extremely important because, apart from the allowed values, the compounds contained in them lose their properties. That is why pharmacies are equipped with special refrigerators to store the substances that require it. In addition, pharmacies always have air conditioning, so that drugs that should be stored at room temperature are not destroyed when the bar on the thermometer dangerously reaches the end of the scale.
After the last heat wave, anxious pharmacists themselves began calling the relevant Inspectorates, informing that air conditioners were not working efficiently enough to adequately protect the products sold. Pharmacies are still the safest source of buying medicines.
According to experts, the most dangerous drugs are purchased at gas stations or in grocery stores. They are usually stored near the counter, and if the point is not air-conditioned, the temperature inside may be similar to that outside. Unfortunately, there is neither time nor money to control such places. A long time passes from reporting a suspect agent to its examination, and these studies are financed from the budget of the police, which are often unable to find funds for this purpose.
Prof. Leszek Borkowski, who is an expert on drugs, makes it clear that if the government allows the sale of drugs outside pharmacies, it should oblige these points to store them in appropriate conditions.
Based on: Dziennik Polski