Drugs are an important aspect of disease prevention and treatment. The process involved in getting rid of drugs that have expired or are no longer relevant is what is referred to as pharmaceutical disposal. At the household level, expired medication is usually discarded in the bin unless it is contraindicated by instructions on the label. On a large scale, guidelines are necessary to ensure correct and safe disposal. Such guidelines exist in California.
Some drugs may be given as donations by pharmaceutical companies during disasters as a form of aid. However, these may arrive beyond or close to expiry date. Sometimes they may be labelled in an unfamiliar language or they may be not be appropriate for needs. Also, the packages may be misused if they have a long shelf. Storage can also become a challenge if the drugs come in large quantities.
To avoid wasting donations, a few simple guidelines need to be observed. This includes donating only those drugs that have durability of more than one year from the time of shipment unless the recipient health institutions have the capacity to effectively accommodate the drugs. Donors should also confirm that medication being shipped is actually appropriate for those meant to receive it.
Any method can be used for disposal on condition that keeps the environment safe from pollution. Improvisation can be done in countries that are not able to afford more advanced methods such as incineration which is commonly used in industrialized regions. Very high temperatures of above one thousand two hundred degrees Celsius are necessary for effective incineration.
Before anything else, protective equipment must be adorned. Some of these equipment may include overalls, masks, gloves among others. In methods that require pondering capsules or tablets, face masks come in handy to protect the eyes from splashes. Once one is fully protected, sorting begins. Sorting entails separating drugs that may still be portable from those that require disposal.
Land filling is one of the cost effective methods used in disposal. It entails dumping of solid waste at a given location directly without any initial preparation of the land or treatment of the waste. A disadvantage of this method though affordable is environmental exposure to pollution. Also, in term s of drug disposal, certain medication such as narcotics may be picked by scavengers at the site and reintroduced into the market.
Alternatively, expired medication can be collected in a container until it is approximately seventy five percent full after which additional harmless material fills up the container forming a block. This material may be in form of lime combined with cement or plain cement. Care should be taken that not potential explosives are present in the containers.
Sewerage systems can also be used as a way of discarding medication. However this may only be limited to a few drugs such as syrups and intravenous fluids. Some antibiotics are not biodegradable and should not be allowed into sewers as they consume bacterial meant for treating the sewage. Similarly, drugs for treating cancer should not be flushed down into water systems as they end up destroying aquatic animals and contaminate water for drinking.
Some drugs may be given as donations by pharmaceutical companies during disasters as a form of aid. However, these may arrive beyond or close to expiry date. Sometimes they may be labelled in an unfamiliar language or they may be not be appropriate for needs. Also, the packages may be misused if they have a long shelf. Storage can also become a challenge if the drugs come in large quantities.
To avoid wasting donations, a few simple guidelines need to be observed. This includes donating only those drugs that have durability of more than one year from the time of shipment unless the recipient health institutions have the capacity to effectively accommodate the drugs. Donors should also confirm that medication being shipped is actually appropriate for those meant to receive it.
Any method can be used for disposal on condition that keeps the environment safe from pollution. Improvisation can be done in countries that are not able to afford more advanced methods such as incineration which is commonly used in industrialized regions. Very high temperatures of above one thousand two hundred degrees Celsius are necessary for effective incineration.
Before anything else, protective equipment must be adorned. Some of these equipment may include overalls, masks, gloves among others. In methods that require pondering capsules or tablets, face masks come in handy to protect the eyes from splashes. Once one is fully protected, sorting begins. Sorting entails separating drugs that may still be portable from those that require disposal.
Land filling is one of the cost effective methods used in disposal. It entails dumping of solid waste at a given location directly without any initial preparation of the land or treatment of the waste. A disadvantage of this method though affordable is environmental exposure to pollution. Also, in term s of drug disposal, certain medication such as narcotics may be picked by scavengers at the site and reintroduced into the market.
Alternatively, expired medication can be collected in a container until it is approximately seventy five percent full after which additional harmless material fills up the container forming a block. This material may be in form of lime combined with cement or plain cement. Care should be taken that not potential explosives are present in the containers.
Sewerage systems can also be used as a way of discarding medication. However this may only be limited to a few drugs such as syrups and intravenous fluids. Some antibiotics are not biodegradable and should not be allowed into sewers as they consume bacterial meant for treating the sewage. Similarly, drugs for treating cancer should not be flushed down into water systems as they end up destroying aquatic animals and contaminate water for drinking.
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