What's in a Name? When It Comes to Drugs, Plenty

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

The following article may be of interest to some of you, it is

however more in laymen's terms:

What's in a Name? When It Comes to Drugs, Plenty

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=91627

Medication Disposal – What to Do with Old or Unusable Medication

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?

articlekey=85048Medical Author: C. Wedro, MD, FAAEM

Medical Editor: C. Shiel, Jr., MD, FACP, FACR

There are many axioms that remind us about how unfair life can be. It

always rains after you wash the car. The car noise disappears the

moment you drive into the mechanic's bay. Your doctor always changes

your prescription the day after you had it refilled.

When you look into your medicine cabinet, you see your medical

history. The leftover pain medication from knee surgery, the few

antibiotic pills you forgot to finish once you felt better, the

cholesterol lowering medication that caused liver inflammation. Small

bottles half-filled with potent medicine and elixirs no good to

anybody - but what to do with them? Like nuclear waste, nobody wants

the leftovers back. Have you ever tried returning pills to a pharmacy

after you developed a side effect or an allergic reaction to the

medication? What are you supposed to do with the 53 pills left in the

bottle?

Most people toss them in the garbage or flush them down the toilet;

but there is a problem with disposing of medication this way. These

medicinal compounds filter into the groundwater and end up in our

lakes and streams. The US Geological Survey studied water from 139

streams in 30 states and found that 80% contained traces of

pharmaceuticals. The affect that those traces of pharmaceuticals may

have on the environment, plants, and marine life is unknown. This

unknown has created a research opportunity, which has been seized by

scientists at the Great Lakes Water Institute. Studies are ongoing to

determine the effects of fluoxetine (Prozac) and other anti-

depressants on fish development. Other work is focused on the effects

of atorvastatin (Lipitor), a cholesterol lowering drug, on fish

reproduction.

Disposing of old or unused medication may get easier as pharmacies

nationwide start programs to accept discarded medicine. An EPA mail

back program has been started by the University of Maine; and La

Crosse, Wisconsin has developed a return program as part of its

household hazardous waste collection program.

Rivers and streams are increasingly being protected from a variety of

runoff contaminants from farm waste to industrial toxins. It was only

a matter of time that the amount of leftover medication flushed down

the toilet would make a difference to the quality of our water.

Limiting the drugs we waste needs cooperation from both the doctor

and patient. It may be cost effective to get a six month supply of

prescription medication for high blood pressure, diabetes or high

cholesterol. However, there is a good chance that the dose or drug

will change in that time frame. Doctors need to be aware that

constantly changing medications and dosage will lead to a medicine

cabinet full of medications with no place to go.

Some doctors' offices have medication receptacles. You simply bring

your old or unusable medication to the office and dispose of them in

the receptacle. You may want to ask your physician if they have these

available.

The problem with outhouses was that people were constantly reminded

of what went down the hole. Indoor plumbing was a great invention

with flushing confirming another axiom: out of sight, out of mind.

But flushing didn't make the medicine go away; it just put it into

somebody else's backyard.

References: United Sates Coast Guard, " Water-Quality Data fore

Pharmaceuticals, Hormones, and Other Organic Wastewater Contaminants

in U.S. Streams, 1999-2000 " (http://toxics.usgs.gov/pubs/OFR-02-94/)

University of Wisconsin, Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences

Center, " Toxicology with the Zebrafish Model, "

(http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/MFB/research/res_grp3.html#Effects%20of%

20Psychopharm).

Last Editorial Review: 11/7/2007

Respectfully,

Jeanetta Mastron CPhT BS

Founder/Owner