Disposal of Prescription Drugs

Although prescription drugs represent a small percentage of the many man-made chemicals finding their way into water, they have the potential for great biological harm.   Most scientists believe that the level of prescription drugs found in our water supply is too low to cause human health issues.  But the current prescription drug levels in our lakes and rivers do have a dramatic effect on fish.  Fish may represent the "canary in the mineshaft" for drug pollution.

There are two main ways for the drugs to make their way into the environment.  The first is through human excretion.  The second way results from people flushing unused drugs down the toilet or sink. There is little we can do about human excretion except possibly reduce the amount of drugs we take.  But we can do something about how unused drugs are disposed of.

The preferred method of disposal is to make use of a pharmaceutical take-back program.  These may be found at some hospitals, senior centers and police stations.  If you want to dispose of the drugs in your regular garbage then take the advice of the U.S. government:  mix the drugs with an unpleasant substance such as used kitty litter, coffee grinds or saw dust (not a joke).  This will prevent the drugs from falling into the hands of garbage scavengers.