What to do with those old pain medications or expired allergy pills?

It used to be an easy one to answer – flush ‘em down the drain or the toilet. That’s still what many hospitals and nursing homes do. It’s an easy way to make sure they don’t fall into the wrong hands and get misused.

But flushing may be the worst of many bad disposal options. That’s because the ingredients in drugs – including lots of hormones and sedatives – make it all the way through the sewers and treatment plants into streams, rivers and coastal waters. As a result, scientists in some parts of the country have been finding overmedicated fish, including some males that have effectively been turned into fertile females that lay eggs.

Although no hormone-confused trout have been reported in Maine yet, a variety of pharmaceuticals have been detected at low levels in waterways here.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the American Pharmacists Association are now trying to get the word out that flushing medications is the wrong answer. Their official advice is to smash pills and seal them in a plastic bag with cat litter or old coffee grounds and throw them into the trash.

Maine officials and community organizations are looking for a more long-term solution.

This Friday, residents of the mid-coast area can drop off old medications at four collection points. The drugs will ultimately be incinerated at a facility with special emissions controls. Here are the details about when and where you can drop off the old meds.

Efforts to create a statewide mail-back collection system have fallen short over the past few years because of a lack of money. Now, however, the University of Maine has a $150,000 federal grant to create a pilot mail-in collection program that could lead to a new disposal option not only for Maine, but other states as well. Here’s a description of the project.

One more link for you while we're on the subject. Look here for information about a pharmaceuticals-in-the-environment conference to be held in Portland in August.

E-mail this entry to a friend