Don’t flush those drugs away

If a cleaning spree turns up a medicine cabinet full of expired or unneeded prescription drugs, don’t flush them away.

Instead, experts say that the garbage can is the proper receptacle of household pharmaceuticals.

“A new recommendation is to take unused prescription products and mix them with an undesired substance like used coffee grounds or kitty litter and place that mixture in a non-descript container such as an empty can or sealable bags and then put that in the trash can,” said Bill Planchetka, clinical pharmacist with Sun Health Medisun. “(You may) also crush up the tablets or pour the powder out of caplets.”

Planchetka’s advice comes from the latest “New Guidelines for Prescription Drug Disposal,” issued jointly by the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, Department of Health and Human Services and Environmental Protection Agency.

The old-fashioned method of flushing pharmaceuticals down the toilet contaminates the Valley’s aquifers, according to Arizona American Water.

“We encourage customers not to dispose of their expired prescriptions through the sewer system,” said community relations manager Todd Walker. “The concern is that wastewater is used to replenish the Valley’s aquifers.”

That’s the core of the city of Surprise’s push to compile a brochure to educate residents about pharmaceutical disposal.

“(We’re advising residents) to throw their pills away in the trash, not in the water,” said London Lacy, the city’s water conservation analyst. “A lot of the chemicals aren’t being broken down in water and will pass through the wastewater treatment plants and aren’t being broken down chemically.”

Lacy said that the department had researched other cities to see how they addressed drug disposals and found varying policies and programs.

“What is interesting is we found in certain cities residents can take their drugs back to the pharmacist (for disposal),” Lacy said.

Planchetka said that some prescription drugs carry a warning on the label advising to flush instead of toss, because of the popularity of its illegal usage.

Some of those include pain relievers Actiq, Percocet and Oxycontin, which Planchetka said “are like gold on the streets.”

Plachetka said that those who have medicine cabinets full of expired medications could actually be hurting themselves.

“Heat, light and humidity deteriorate medicine,” Plachetka said. “Presciptions stored in those little brown prescription bottles lose 10 percent of their potency after a year.”

“They are slowly breaking down. And if there is more than one (substance), it could become toxic.”