15 things you shouldn’t leave in the car

Most medicine should be left at room temperature, but a car will rarely stay at that point when not in use. Heat probably won’t make your drugs directly harmful, but it could make them less effective.

Save your grocery run for the end of your errands list. Perishable food should be put in the fridge within two hours in most cases. In the summer, you have an even shorter window. If it’s more than 32°C, food shouldn’t be left out for more than an hour.

Find out 20 foods you shouldn’t store in your fridge.

Consider the weather before heading to a garden centre, especially if you won’t be heading home straight after. Even relatively mild temperatures of 7.2°C to 10°C can kill some plants within an hour, according to Lowe’s. If the leaves are touching the windows, the chilly glass could ruin the foliage. Hot temperatures can also be deadly to plants, so keep them shaded and cool on your drive home, and bring them indoors as soon as possible.

Although the research is a bit unclear, studies have linked BPA and phthalates, chemicals found in plastic water bottles, with health conditions like cancer and heart disease. Letting a bottle sit in the sun and heat up could cause these chemicals to leach into the water. Plus, if the bottle has been lying around for a while, it could start harbouring microorganisms.

Did you know that bottled water expires?

There’s a reason for the fine print on aerosol cans’ warning labels: Don’t store in temperatures above 48.8°C. As the product’s temperature climbs, so does the pressure inside that lets it spray continuously. In rare cases – like a woman in the US and a man in England in summer 2018 – the heat in a car can get so intense that the aerosol explodes, especially if you leave it in direct sunlight. The projectile can damage the car, or worse, hit somebody with a force strong enough to send them to the hospital.

Your favourite tube won’t stand a chance in the sky-high summer temperatures. Keep lipstick from turning into an unusable, melted mess by toting it in and out, rather than leaving it in the car for touch ups in front of the sun visor mirror.

Next, find out 11 crazy things people have done while driving.

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Source: RD.com