3 ms·

States trashing troves of masks and protective gear as costly stockpiles expire

• hattmall 3y ago
  How serious is an expiration on something like a mask??
• bradley13 3y ago
  Of course, the expiry dates are almost certainly nonsense. If the gear has been stored in clean, dry conditions, absolutely nothing is going to happen to it. Rather like medications. There was a study a while back that tested drugs that were produced at various times - all the way back to the 1960s. Almost without exception, they were still fine. In the cases of the oldest drugs, some had lost up to (iirc) 40% of their potency, so dosages might not be correct. Artificially short expiry dates are set for various reasons: (a) to limit the company's liability to a short time span, (b) to encourage discards, so they can sell you more of the same, and (c) to account for people who store items in poor conditions.