How come I have to buy a giant cotton ball with every bottle of aspirin?

Answer 1

Yes, the people who state that it is to prevent breakage during shipment are correct. When a pharmaceutical company decides on packaging for a product, they consider the available space above the tablets in the bottle as "headspace". Tablets are compressed to a particular hardness and may be coated or uncoated. Softer, uncoated tablets, like regular aspirin, are more "friable" meaning they can chip or break more easily than others. Therefore the cotton ball is put in the bottle to protect the tablets by minimizing the movement in the bottle. The cotton can also function as a moisture barrier, although moisture sensitive products may have a desiccant canister or packet placed in the bottle as well.

Answer 2

Who makes those cotton balls?

"Ever wonder who makes the blob of cotton in the aspirin bottle or the dabs of cotton on either end of a Q-tip?
Until now, Memphis-based Buckeye Technologies Inc. has been a key player in what is called the bleached cotton market..."

http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/business_columnists/article/0,1426,MCA_441_5300185,00.html


Why are those cotton balls there?

"Drug manufacturers have long used what looks like cotton balls to fill up the empty space inside medicine bottles. These fluffy fillers are actually made of cotton, rayon, or polyester, and they're put there to protect the tablets or capsules from breaking during shipping."

http://www.drugstore.com/qxa1548_332828_sespider-what_is_that_cotton_ball_doing_in_my_medicine_bottle.htm


What should we do with those cotton balls?

"Remove the cotton ball that?s packed in every medicine container. It?s used to protect the pills during transport, but it can become a medium for fungi and other contaminants if not removed once the bottle is opened. "

http://www.applesforhealth.com/healthdrug2.html


So... is there anything cool or useful we can do with those cotton balls?

Try recycling.
" Shiny Bows from Potato Chip Bags
... Although you can try to put more of these inside each other to make it a complete bow, this is very difficult and frustrating. Instead, try putting a cotton ball (from aspirin bottles) ..."

http://www.savetheworld.com/reuse/instruct.html

Or try arts/crafts.
Snowflake Ornaments

http://www.allfreecrafts.com/christmas/bottle-snowman.shtml

Answer 3

There was a man that kept injecting drugs into tylenol bottles, that's why pill containters have a lot more on them then they use to, such as a box, then the shrink wrap, hard to open feature, and then the cotton ball. Though of course every bottle says do not use/buy if seal is broken.

I've also heard the cotton ball is to keep the pills at their best "freshness" such as putting in a slice of bread within a container were cookies are held.

Answer 4

The cotton in an aspirin bottle is just there to take up the empty space in the bottle. It prevents the pills from shaking and breaking apart during shipping.

Answer 5

Ok, now you've forced me to get serious for a minute here. Have you ever been out of cotton swabs and you really needed to take your nail polish off for the 3rd time at 2 am because you wrecked it again while changing the cat litter and you just know that you can't go to work the next day with nails that are less than perfect? Have you? I bet you would think about that "useless cotton" a little different then now wouldn't you?

Answer 6

To wipe the tears from your eyes when you see how much they charged ya for a big bottle of aspirin with ten pills in it!

Answer 7

It's to cushion the pills during transport. I would hate to pay all that money and then have to take aspirin powder when I had a headache.

Answer 8

So your aspirin don't break when shipped out.

Answer 9

its a conspiracy, to get rid of all the excess cotton wool from the mountain thats built up, they r trying to disperse it far and wide!

Answer 10

Absorb moisture.
Possibly preventing breakage during shipment.