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Proper use, disposal of drugs important to water safety
By SUZETTE PORTER
Article published on Tuesday, March 18, 2008 |
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![[Image]](/content_images/031808_pco-02.jpg) |
| Graphic by SUZETTE PORTER |
| Officials are urging the public to help keep drinking water supplies safe with safe disposal of pharmaceuticals. |
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PINELLAS COUNTY – Proper use and disposal of pharmaceuticals is one of the ways the public can be good stewards of drinking water supplies, according to local experts.
Recent reports of pharmaceuticals at concentrations of one part per billion or trillion sparked a flurry of recommendations from Pinellas County Utilities and the Florida Department of Health for proper disposal of expired or unneeded medications.
The big message is “Do not flush pharmaceuticals down the toilet. Do not pour them down the drain.”
“It’s important that people change their disposing habits to help keep pharmaceuticals out of the drinking supplies,” said Jan Tracy, education coordinator, at Pinellas County Utilities’ South Cross Bayou Water Reclamation Facility. “Proper disposal can help stop any worsening of this potential problem,” she said.
Jeannine Mallory, public information officer with Pinellas County Health Department, agreed.
“Now that there’s a heightened awareness, we can educate the public about the need to take care of the environment and the proper disposal of pharmaceuticals.”
Tips offered by Pinellas County Utilities and the State Department of Health, include:
- Contacting physicians or pharmacies to see if they have a take-back program.
- When disposing of old medicine, keep it in its original container to help identify the contents if accidentally ingested. Mark out the patient’s name and prescription number.
- Treat pills by adding water or soda to dissolve them. For liquids add something inedible such as cat litter, dirt of cayenne pepper.
- Close the lid and secure with duct or packing tape. Place the bottle inside an opaque (non see-through) container such as a coffee can or plastic laundry bottle. Tape the container closed.
- Hide the container in the trash. Do not place in a recycle bin.
Different rules for hazardous pharmaceutical disposal apply to businesses. For more information, call Pinellas County Solid Waste Operations at 464-7500 or visit www.pinellascounty.org/utilities/getridofit.
Remember the same guidelines apply for animal medications.
“We’re asking people to do the right thing and dispose of unused or expired medications in what may be a new way,” Tracy said. “It’s just takes a couple of steps and it’s not that hard.”
Chris Owen, water quality assurance officer with Tampa Bay Water, said when recent information came out from the Centers for Disease Control that children’s cold medicines didn’t really do any good, she saw a media interview with a parent who said he intended to pour the unneeded medicine down the drain.
“Drinking water providers across the nation shuddered when they heard that,” she said.
She compared the new recommendations to battery disposal.
“A few years ago, everyone threw their batteries in the trash,” she said. “Now we know that we should recycle them to protect the environment.”
While proper disposal of medications can go a long ways toward keeping levels of pharmaceuticals in the water at very low concentrations, some trace amounts of the compounds will continue to be added to wastewater when people taking prescription drugs use the bathroom.
“When people take medicine, most of it is absorbed,” Tracy said. “But some passes through when a person urinates and when they flush it goes to the wastewater treatment plant.”
Tracy said currently there is no method being used to clean pharmaceuticals from Pinellas County’s wastewater.
“We’ll have a hard time getting that out,” she said.
Owen said it was ironic that recent research was bringing the potential problem home to “your bathroom and medicine cabinet and reminding everyone of the importance of watershed protection.
“No one in their right mind would counsel you not to take prescription medicine, but people might want to make sure they take only what they need. If you have an ache, do you really need that aspirin, or could you just get up and stretch and help the pain go away?”
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Article published on Tuesday, March 18, 2008
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