The Great Aspirin Conspiracy

Not being one who likes to ingest medicine past the expiration date on the packaging, last week I threw out a bottle of aspirin that had 'exp 08/06' typed on the label. The bottle contained slightly more than half of the original 300 it had when I purchased it. I don't remember when I bought it but I would guess not more than three years ago.

On my next trip to the supermarket, I had aspirin on my list. I noticed that a bottle of 300 costs $2.99 but a bottle of 100 costs $2.69. Ok, I thought, the 300 is more bang for my buck...until I looked at the expiration dates on the bottles. The bottle with 300 expired in November, 2008. The bottle with 100 expired in November, 2007.

At this point I wondered about the whole aspirin production process and if the aspirin maker actually runs a line for the 100 count bottles and a line for the 300 count bottles with some kind of special additive in the pills that gets added to the '300' bottles. Maybe the pills that go into the 100 count bottles were actually made some time in 2005 and the pills for the 300 count were made within the past few months. Maybe the unsold 300 counts are sent back to the manufacturer and then repackaged in 100 count bottles. Then I just thought the heck with it, they got me either way. Aspirin is cheap compared to most other OTC stuff anyway, let alone what prescription medicines cost. So I bought the 100 count bottle and wondered how many pills will get thrown away on December 1, 2007.