S is for Salbutamol 💊 Traditional Cache

#19 Drug Alphabet Series

This series combines two of my favourite "hobbies" - drugs and geocaching. It will inform you about some drugs ie. medicines that you may come across in your lifetime, treating a wide range of medical conditions; and also take you to some interesting places on the Sunshine Coast that you may not have been to before.

Salbutamol (C₁₃H₂₁NO₃ ) is used to treat acute asthma and relieve symptoms during maintenance treatment of asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, formerly know as “emphysema”), and prevention of exercise-induced asthma. It is a short acting beta₂-agonist or bronchodilator which relaxes bronchial (lung) smooth muscle by stimulating beta₂ adrenoceptors. Salbutamol in its inhaled form has a rapid onset of action (5-15 minutes) and short duration of action (3-6 hours). Common side effects include tremour, palpitations and headache. It should ot be used as a substitute for more appropriate anti-inflammatory steroid preventative therapy in chronic asthma. Salbutamol was discovered in 1966 by Allen and Hanburys laboratory, a subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline in Hertfordshire, England; and launched onto the market in 1968 becoming an instant success and has been used to treat asthma ever since.

The cache can be found along a popular walkway in Beacon Lighthouse Reserve on Point Cartwright. You can access the track from below from the path near the Mooloolah River or from above from the path to the lighthouse. The cache is a pill bottle hidden not far from the track.

FTF prize is a "happy pill" with a message inside. Please do not swallow!