Police-CHICAGO Hand Sanitizer Given To Officers Expired In 2015

[lunasun]

https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/03/18/coronavirus-in-chicago-cpd-says-hand-sanitizer-given-to-officers-expired-in-2015/

8 years old

The CPD said there is a nationwide shortage of hand sanitizer that applies to the department too. The hand sanitizer that was made in 2012 and expired was the only supply provided to the department, the CPD said.

The manufacturer, Safetec of America Inc., said the hand sanitizer does not have an expiration date because it is an over-the-counter product without a dosage limit. But the company said it only has three years of stability testing, and thus, cannot vouch for the effectiveness of hand sanitizer that is more than three years old.

The CPD said the expired hand sanitizer issue is also affecting other departments across the country, including New York.

[getagrip_already]

1. if it's isopropyl based, no worries.....

Iso doesn't have a shelf life. It will work fine. Might separate a bit from its gel, but shaking will remix it.

Stupid shelf lifes drive me crazy. 99% of the time, they are marketing dates and not safety dates.

[lunasun]

2. Good if that's the case- there was concern

as it’s been found out by the rank & file

[customerserviceguy]

3. Exactly

Other than some food, expiration dates are often BS.

[getagrip_already]

4. most medicines do have legit shelf lives also.... n/t

[customerserviceguy]

5. Prescriptions perhaps

but I find that over-the-counter medicines are usually OK for a couple of years after the date.

Right here at my desk, I have some Chiggerex anti-itch cream for use with mosquito bites that has an expiration date of July, 2017, and the last time I used it, it still did the job.

Back in the 1960's, when cars were radically redesigned from year to year, we called that "planned obsolescence". Then, in the 1970's, automakers said to hell with that, and abandoned the strategy. But the pharmaceutical industry loves the concept without even having to re-tool every year.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Good Post

The expirations dates, however, are mostly bogus. The logical exception being biologics.
The chemical entropy of these molecules is extraordinarily slow. Although organic compounds don't have true half-life, the first 50% decomposition is still called that. (Two reasons why it's not a real half life: 1. Ambient conditions influence the rate of entropy. It's not like radioactive decay. 2. At some point, many such compounds accelerate in decomposition as the breakdown product may cause other routes of decomposition)
Complex organics like these would have expected half lives in the dozens of years, absent extreme storage conditions.
As you said pharma still puts those on there. Your reason is probably one reason. The other is likely legal CYA.

[customerserviceguy]

7. Thanks, Professor! n/t