Have you ever wondered what you should do with the old pills in your medicine cabinet? Or do you remember being told that you should just flush old prescription drugs down the drain, or flush them away when they had expired? If so, you’re not alone. Until recently, the disposal of prescription drugs has been little considered by federal or state governments, and as a result, tons of antibiotics, mood stabilizers, heart medications, hormones, and other drugs have landed in our water and our soil.

If you’re looking for the nation’s official policy on how to dispose of all those old pills littering your medicine cabinet, you might turn to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Established in 1998, this office’s principle purpose is to determine the policies, priorities, and objectives of the nation’s drug control program; the handing and disposal of prescription drugs falls under that broad umbrella.

The official recommendations published by the federal government include 3 options. You can flush your pills down the toilets ( if directed to do so by the drug’s label), you can call your county or city household trash and recycling services, and ask if they have a community drug reclamation program, or you can follow their instructions to throw away pills in the garbage.

To throw away your drugs, the fact sheet states that you should place your old pills in a sealable container (like a Tupperware container with a lid), add an undesirable substance such as coffee grounds or kitty litter, and place the container in the bottom of your trash barrel – making sure that it’s out of sight and doesn’t contain any information about you or the medications contained therein. The video above was produced by the office to assist people in understanding the drug disposal process.

I was a little disappointed with the information provided by the Office of National Drug Control Policy – they didn’t provide any background information on why drugs need to be disposed of in these manners, nor did they address the environmental implications of disposing of drugs improperly.? I was also dismayed that they didn’t provide a list of state, country or local offices that run drug take-back programs, websites directing people to learn more, or links back to the EPA’s research on the matter.

To learn more, I visited the EPA’s website and found a section focused on educating people about the harm caused by Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products (PPCP) to the environment and people. The EPA is quick to point out that PPCPs are turning out in increasing amounts in our water supply, but they’re not so forthcoming when it comes to linking PPCPs and harm to human health. The EPA does stress however, that placing PPCPs into the sewage system (via flushing them down the toilet or pouring them down the sink) does have uncertain risks.

The nation’s water treatment system is not equip to handle the removal of PPCPs, and any contamanents placed into the system have the potential to disrupt the overall health of our water treatment and processing facilitites. At the same time, there has been scant evidence suggesting the increased concentration of antibiodics in our water system has caused some antibiodic-resisdent disease strains in aquatic organisms.

Since the concentrations of drugs in our drinking water remains low however, the public and environmental health impact of dumped drugs is not yet fully known. So while it’s troubling to think about throwing medicine in the garbage, there’s little research out there suggesting that doing so could cause environmental harm. My concern on this matter is that landfills leak and pollute ground water; since there’s little in the way of established research on this matter however, the best course of action today is to follow the government’s advice.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Port Townsend School Students Helps The EPA Highlight The Agency’s Commitment To Protecting Human Health And The Environment (seattlepi.com)

Tags: Drug Disposal, Office of National Drug Control Policy, Prescription Drugs, Prescription Medication, Recycling, Water Conservation

• About Green Buyer’s Guide
• Constructing Green Communities
• Investing in a Greener Future
• New Year’s Eve Goes Green(er)
• Go Find a Green Job

This entry was posted on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Mainstream and Green, Recycling, Sustainability, Water Conservation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.