Dumping Your Drugs

Chemicals in regional ground- and drinking-water resources is nothing new. But it is easy for most of us to ignore or forget.

In 2008 I conducted a research project with my academic adviser, Prof. Bret Shaw, to investigate medication disposal in the hospice industry. We were interested in talking with hospice professionals (in Wisconsin, USA) about the disposal of pharmaceuticals in their agencies. 

Individuals undergoing hospice care often get very strong medications. But what happens after the drugs expire or are no longer needed? Often, for reasons of safety or other concerns, they are simply flushed down the toilet or tossed in the trash. Concerns about the negative environmental impacts of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the water has grown in recent years.

Various outlets provide some basic information on the issue, including MSNBC, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the World Health Organization.

I recently noticed that the article Prof. Shaw and I published as a result of our research has been cited a couple of times, in 2010 and 2011. The Google Scholar search results are here. As a "young" social science researcher, it is nice to sense that others find one's research interesting as well as methodologically sound enough to cite (in one case, several times). 

Disposal of household pharmaceuticals is not just an issue facing hospice agencies. Think of how many expired or unused prescription drugs are sitting in your own medicine cabinet. What do you do with them? If you flush them down the toilet or down the drain, where do you think they go? They certainly don't just disappear.

Thankfully this issue has gotten some attention. Many communities now have "clean sweep" programs like the one here in Dane County, Wisconsin. Wastewater treatment plants do not generally screen out pharmaceutical pollutants. They go right through, into the ground and surface water systems of your community or, more accurately, downstream communities. Evidence suggests that the cumulative effects of decades of negligent disposal has led to negative consequences on aquatic plant and animal life. 

The Food & Drug Administration offers guidelines for the safe disposal of unused medications.