Delmarva Drives

On the Road with Fran Severn

For years we’ve been told to dispose of leftover drugs by flushing them down the toilet. Simple, fast, effective, and safe.

Well, maybe not so much.

All sorts of pharmaceutical residue are showing up in water supplies, even in places where it goes through municipal water treatment systems. Those aren’t set up to detect most drugs, much less filter them out. Even scarier, drugs are showing up in what was thought to be pristine rivers and bays far from population centers. Folks checking water quality are finding fish and frogs with growths that look like makeup from a zombie movie and male creatures with female organs. Scientists think this is the result of weird combinations of pharmaceuticals mixing with the DNA stew. And that’s got some sobering implications for those of us higher up on the food chain.

Which brings us to Operation Medicine Drop. This Saturday, several locations in Worcester County are accepting prescription on OTC drugs that are leftover or past their effective use dates. You can clean out your medicine cabinet and take the old painkillers, antibiotics, blood pressure meds, antihistamines – anything and everything – to the drop off spots. They will be property and safely disposed of. (In case you are interested, that involves shipping them to a special incinerator that’s designed to prevent even the smoke from getting into the general, breathable atmosphere.)

You can find a list of the locations and times at http://www.worceseterhealth.org. If you can’t make it, there are alternative ways of safely getting rid of old drugs. (http://www.smartxdisposal.net) 

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Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 04/21/11 at 09:49 AM

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