Over Cooked Insulin

OK, the VA is doing something that makes no sense again. Some entity in the huge bureaucracy that is the United States Department of Defense Veteran’s Administration has decided that in order to save money they will mail out all Novolin 70/30 insulin without any special packaging to keep it cool. Insulin is very temperature sensitive and can be made to be ineffective if stored at high temperatures.

About a week ago I got a package of what I assumed was insulin in the mail. It wasn’t in the big bulky foam box and didn’t have the weight of something containing jell packs that I expected with insulin shipments. I had taken this package out of my big black mailbox on the side of the road that was of course just setting there in the hot sun. Since the package didn’t seem to have any temperature control packing, I went back to the house, got an oven thermometer and set it in the mailbox for a few minutes. According to the thermometer the temperature was 140 degrees Fahrenheit in my mailbox. Well above the temperature that the insulin can successfully withstand and still remain viable.

According to what I was told by a pharmacist at Birmingham VAMC (on the phone,) the entity that made the decision about no special packaging for shipping had tested the Novolin 70/30 up to 35 degrees Celsius which equates to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. This is well below the temperatures to be found on a typical Summer day in Alabama. On the day I took the insulin out of the mailbox the ambient temperature in my area had remained over 100 degrees for several hours.

The package I took from the mailbox contained 6 10ml bottles of Novolin 70/30 Insulin with a commercial cost of approximately $25.00/bottle. Multiply that by all the other orders that were sent out during that hot spell and you get a lot of money wasted through the lack of proper packaging. Not to mention all the veterans who thought they were taking a medication that would help them cope with their diabetes, but were not receiving the benefits they assumed they were.

My doctor has been on me lately about poor control of my sugar level. I can’t help but wonder if part of the reason might not be the use of over-heated insulin?

Sadly, it was made pretty clear to me by the people at the BVMAC Pharmacy that despite what I had told them this was a matter of "Policy" and nothing I had said would change anything.

I’m hoping that among the people out there who might read this is someone who can facilitate a change.

Uncle Dave
Attalla, Alabama
US Navy 1968-1979