Safe disposal drug take-back bins help keep communities safe and clean
by Anne Stokes
Along with the power to heal, medications have the potential to cause harm when misused or improperly discarded. Safe disposal drug take-back bins provide safe and convenient ways to keep unwanted drugs out of the environment and out of the hands of those who would misuse them.
“Patients and families are looking for a way to get rid of old medications, to simplify what they have at home, and make sure that people who could be harmed by accidental ingestion don’t have access to them.”
Dr. Rais Vohra, Interim Health Officer, Fresno County Department of Public Health
“Patients and families are looking for a way to get rid of old medications, to simplify what they have at home, and make sure that people who could be harmed by accidental ingestion don’t have access to them,” says Dr. Rais Vohra, interim health officer for the Fresno County Department of Public Health and medical director of the Fresno-Madera division of the California Poison Control System. “Anyone who goes to the store and ends up getting medications that they don’t use, whether they’re over-the-counter or if their doctor happens to change their prescription because it doesn’t work, then they’ll have left-over pills. Over the years, that leads to a medicine cabinet that’s full.”
Don’t rush to flush
Even in the recent past, people were advised to flush unused medications down the drain. Unfortunately, wastewater treatment facilities aren’t designed to remove these contaminants. This means what gets flushed down the toilet often pollutes the same watersheds that supply communities’ drinking water.
“People are very appropriately concerned about medications getting into the water supply or a landfill, or it even being thrown in the trash and being diverted that way,” says Dr. Vohra.
Not getting rid of medications has its risks
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an average of 45 Americans died every day from prescription opioid overdoses in 2021, for a total of 280,000 deaths. And this was nearly five times the number of deaths in 1999. Similarly, two-thirds of teens who admit to abusing painkillers say they got them out of home medicine cabinets. And each year, approximately 59,000 children in the U.S. end up in emergency departments because of accidental poisoning.
A better option
Safe disposal drug take-back bins provide a convenient and safe option to responsibly dispose of unwanted medications.
“If you have old prescriptions, even over-the-counter medications, it’s better just to get rid of those and a take-back program allows people both an opportunity and a place to do that,” says Dr. Vohra. “A medication take-back program allows people a safe mechanism to get rid of their medications and make sure they don’t get reintroduced somewhere else, whether it’s in the environment or the culture at large.”
To find a bin near you, visit medtakebackcalifornia.org.
Read more stories about med bins in California’s South Central Valley.
