What is it with pharmaceutical producers and their decision to use extremely small, often light print on their product packaging?
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I try to abide by the common medical advise "read directions before use", but that often is not possible. That is, of course, unless I have a 20-something with perfect vision, or a magnifying glass nearby.
I don't want to generalise and say all medicine bottles are like this, but I am yet to find one that isn't.
Regardless of whether it be a vitamin, antibiotic, a ventolin pump or any other medication the directions are near impossible to read, and forget about trying to find the expiry date in many cases.
I wear glasses for long-sightedness, get my eyes checked regularly and am proud to say I have 20-20 distance vision - but my arms are not a metre long so my quality, long distance vision isn't helpful in this situation.
Unfortunately even with my glasses on, the print on a medicine bottle is still often too small and too faint for me to read.
Of late I have been taking photos of the directions so I can then expand the print on my phone - but should I have to do that?
I understand that there is a not a lot of room to provide details on a bottle but surely directions are something that should be easily visible to all users. I feel the expiry date is equally important.
As far as I am concerned, this is a situation that clearly needs revision by the marketing gurus for medical products.
In the meantime, that magnifying glass I bought for my husband a few years ago - as a joke - now has real merit.
My vision is firmly focused on a solution to this challenge.
Jackie Meyers
ACM Editor