Keeping Pharmaceuticals Out of Oregon's Rivers
Working collaboratively to develop a drug take back program for Oregon.
If you have unwanted or expired drugs, please don’t flush them down the toilet. Sewage treatment plants were not designed to remove pharmaceutical products, so those chemicals make their way into Oregon’s rivers, streams, and even into our drinking water. In one national study of 139 streams in 30 states, drugs were found in 80% of the samples. There is little scientific research on how the presence of these pharmaceuticals might impact human health. Recent studies have shown that low levels of hormones downstream from sewage treatment plants cause the feminization of male fish, which can ultimately lead to population decline.
Currently the safest way to dispose of unwanted or expired medications is to take them out of their original containers, mix them with an undesirable substance, like used coffee grounds or kitty litter, and put them in impermeable, non-descript containers, such as empty cans or sealable bags, to ensure that the drugs are not diverted or accidentally ingested by children or pets. Then dispose of them in the trash.
This is the best disposal method we have now, but it is not ideal. The pharmaceuticals can still end up in landfill leachate, which is treated by municipal sewage plants, and thus we come back around to the same problem. A broad group of stakeholders has been developing recommendations to create a drug take back program in Oregon. Such a program might involve drop boxes in convenient locations or a mail-back program, where drugs would be collected for incineration. Creating a drug take back program is complicated by federal drug enforcement laws that make it illegal for anyone except police officers to possess certain prescription drugs that have been prescribed to someone else.
OEC’s Teresa Huntsinger participated in the drug take back stakeholder group, which was convened by the Oregon Association of Clean Water Agencies (ACWA). The Stakeholders met since November, 2006 and investigated a number of possible programs to properly dispose of unwanted and unused drugs. The group is recommending that a Product Stewardship model be used, and the companies that sell drugs in Oregon be asked to set up an effective program that can serve all of Oregon. Download the Executive Summary of the Drug Take Back Stakeholder Group’s recommendations. [PDF: 72 KB]
