People should not take unused or old prescription drugs back to pharmacies for disposal if they want to keep them out of the drinking water supply. According to state law, it's illegal for pharmacies to take b
ALGIS J. LAUKAITIS / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 7:00 pm
People should not take unused or old prescription drugs back to pharmacies for disposal if they want to keep them out of the drinking water supply.
According to state law, it’s illegal for pharmacies to take back drugs that have been dispensed to customers.
A Journal Star reader and registered pharmacist pointed that out after a Lincoln Water System official gave incorrect information in a recent story about the safety of Lincoln’s drinking water supply.
After a five-month investigation, the Associated Press discovered that traces of pharmaceuticals were detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas nationwide, heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to public health.
Dan King, an environmental health specialist with the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department, said the reader is correct and people should not take their prescription drugs back to the pharmacy. He said the state law was written that way to protect the pharmacy.
So what should people do?
King said the health department is advising people to throw old or unused pharmaceuticals in the trash, instead of flushing them down the toilet, to protect the environment and public health.
But before they do, he said, they should remove the drugs from their containers and mix them up with an undesirable material like kitty litter or coffee grounds. They should also blot out or remove any personal information on prescription labels before throwing the containers away.
King said the health department is working with the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, the Nebraska Pharmacists Association and the Nebraska Pharmacy Board on a public education campaign.
“The goal is to switch people from the flush mentality to disposing (pharmaceuticals) in the trash,” King said.
State regulations also address how hospitals and other health care facilities dispose of unwanted prescription drugs.
Marcia Mueting, a pharmacist with the Nebraska Pharmacists Association, said nursing homes and long-term care facilities have to destroy pharmaceuticals on site but state law does not specify how they do it.
“Some of them can be returned to the pharmacy,” she said. “Some of them are definitely being flushed at nursing homes.”
Mueting said hospitals work with reverse distributors — companies that collect unwanted medications. A hospital sometimes can get credit for a drug. She said some drug manufacturers advise flushing as a proper method of disposal.
“We’re trying to work on a better solution than flushing,” Mueting said.
Marla Augustine, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Human Services, said nursing homes and hospitals have to have drug disposal policies and procedures in place. They also have to document the disposal method and quantity of drugs.
Augustine said most nursing homes flush prescription drugs down the toilet and a small number incinerate drugs.
Hospitals, she said, have to have an “undispensed” drug room, and expired medications are often sent back to the drug companies.
Augustine acknowledged that some hospitals do flush or incinerate unwanted pharmaceuticals in accordance with hospital procedures and federal regulations.
Other states do allow residents to bring their unused or old prescription drugs back to pharmacies, King said. A change in Nebraska law is being considered to allow that practice here.
The health department is also working on some type of take-back program, where residents could bring back their prescription drugs on special days. King said it could be used as a model for the state. He said some communities in Nebraska have already hosted such programs on their own.
In the past, people have brought prescription drugs back to the health department’s household hazardous waste collection sites in Lincoln and Lancaster County but they have been turned away.
King said if pharmaceuticals were accepted on those collection days, they would have to have a law enforcement official on site who would have to “escort” the drugs to the destruction site.
Reach Algis J. Laukaitis at 402-473-7243 or alaukaitis@journalstar.com.