Pharmaceutical Waste Management An Overview (original) (raw)
Related papers
The persisting environmental problem of disposal of expired and unused medicines
Journal of Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, 2019
Objectives: Safe disposal of expired, unwanted, or unused medications by the consumers is a major challenge worldwide. The knowledge, attitude and practice of consumers on disposal of unused and expired medicines were assessed. Methods: Data on demographics, educational, occupation, socioeconomic status, drugs purchased, number of unused or expired drugs were obtained from medicine consumers. Knowledge, attitude and practice of safe disposal methods, number, most common class, dosage forms of leftover drugs and the reasons were assessed using a questionnaire. Effect of educational, occupational, socioeconomic status on purchase of drugs, awareness on the consequences of improper disposal of drugs were assessed using chi square test. Results: Of 145 participants, 46 % were females and 54% were males with a mean age of 36.76 + 13.60 years. 66 participants stated 1-5 drugs as leftover at home and the reason for possession of unused medicines as self-discontinuation after the condition was resolved. Most common drugs left unused at home were analgesics and the dosage form was tablets. 76.6% were unaware of the consequences of improper drug disposal. 65.5% stated the acceptable method to dispose medicines as collection of unused drug by Municipality. Majority (88%) disposed unused or expired medicines in the garbage. There was a statistically significant association between educational, occupational and socio economic status, purchase of drugs and awareness on consequences of improper drug disposal (P<0.05). Conclusion: Most of the participants had leftover of unused or expired drugs in their households and there was lack of awareness on safe disposal of medicines.
Assessment on disposal practices of unused and expired medications
International Journal of Public Health Science (IJPHS), 2022
Pharmaceutical disposal practices have become a global issue that has caught the concern of health authorities, pharmaceutical firms, healthcare practitioners, and the general public. The current study aimed to assess the disposal practices of unused and expired medications among the households Namakkal district, Tamil Nadu, India. The qualitative, cross-sectional study was conducted using a well-structured questionnaire form. A total of 400 responses were obtained from each member of the family. Participants under the age of 18 were excluded from the study. Respondents who refused to participate were not included in the study. More than 50% of the study population reported that they stored unused and expired medications at home. Most of the participants revealed that the unused medications they stored costs approximately ≤₹300. Majority of participants dispose unused/expired medications by means of trash can (53.1%). A significant population (71.2%) was unaware of novel disposal practices like drug takeback system. The study concluded that there is an inappropriate disposal practice among households which has to be rectified by providing awareness among the public. Further studies should be conducted for the development of well formalized protocol regarding proper disposal practices.
Objective: A large number of drugs going into the land fill or in water system have received great attention. In the present study, a survey was conducted to find out the household drug disposal practice and to determine the level of awareness regarding the proper method to discard these drugs. More than 80% volunteers reported the disposal practice through dustbin, 11.5% responds it is acceptable to flush them in sink or toilet, only 2% return them to pharmacy and 3.8% of the population do not have any background what to do with the expired or unused medication. To minimize the entry of pharmaceutical in environment proper guidance should be provided to the physician for prescribing less number of drugs in small amount moreover, public may be educated to discard the medicine safely.
Pharmacist's opinion and practice towards disposal of unused medications in South India
A large portion of the pharmaceuticals in our water comes from the improper disposal of unused or unwanted drugs by households and medical facilities. The ability to detect these tiny amounts has increased public awareness and raised new questions about the potential longer-term impact of pharmaceuticals on environment. The aim of the study was to evaluate the opinion and practice of the pharmacists towards disposal of unwanted/ left out medicines. A random qualitative interview study was conducted and the data was collected by face to face semi structured interview among registered pharmacists in south India. Institutional Ethical clearance was obtained before proceeding for the study. A total of 127 registered pharmacists were participated in the study. Disposing unwanted medicines in trash and flushing down the sink by 50.5% was the main method by the respondents, 63.9% agreed that they were not aware of environmental hazards due to improper drug disposal; however 45% of the participants were accepted to have their pharmacy as a collecting point of unwanted medicines. Need of some policies to implement strictly and concerned authorities should monitor and implement proper disposal guidelines.
2014
Background: The usage of medication is increasing in Malaysia. The amount of medication being thrown away as trash is huge every year. The metabolites of each medication also being flushed down the sewage system every day. The purpose of this study is to know the disposal method of unwanted medication and the knowledge of its impacts to the environment. The study participants were the customers of the community pharmacy. Methodology: This is a cross sectional study involving community pharmacy customers in Shah Alam Municipality, Selangor. Data was collected from April to Mei 2014' Result: A pilot study demonstrated that the questionnaire was valid and reliable to assess the customers practice and knowledge toward medication disposal. The most utilized disposal method was to dispose as thrash either in the bottle or strip or pour out the medication from their respective containers into the trash. The customers did not agree with the statement that medication residue can harm the environment. Conclusion: These findings showed that community pharmacy customer's medication disposal preferred method is to dispose them as trash and they did not know about the impacts of medication residue to the environment. Therefore, it is recommended that better regulations are required to ensure that the disposal of unwanted medication will no longer cause harmful impacts to the environment. The community pharmacist also need to play proactive roles in educating their customers about the harmful impacts of improper medication disposal to the environment.
The Professional Medical Journal
Introduction: Due to irresponsible and unsafe methods of drug disposal employedby consumers pharmaceutical waste enters the ecosystem, ultimately having a detrimentaleffect on both human health and environment. Objectives: The purpose of the study is tomeasure attitude and practice of local community in Karachi, Pakistan regarding safe disposalof unwanted medicines and assess willingness of participants to take part in a medicationtake-back program. Study Design: A two-phase observational study was conducted usingconvenience sampling. Period: January to February, 2016. Methodology: In Phase I (n = 200)students enrolled in various health sciences institutions in the study were asked to take part inthe survey. In Phase II(n = 300) household consumers were contacted by telephone and socialmedia. Results: Participants (response rate 84.4%) were given a questionnaire to explore theirattitudes towards medicine disposal. More than half of the consumers surveyed reported storingunused/expir...
Knowledge and Awareness of the Medicine Disposal Among Healthcare Professionals
Hamdard Journal of Pharmacy
Pharmaceutical active preparations are designed with specific biological and physiological properties. These formulations possess desired therapeutic action against numerous diseases and infections. But some preparations have hazardous effects on the environment when it comes to disposal of medicines, it is necessary to know about the importance of proper waste disposal. The primary objective of the study is to know about the importance of the medicinal waste disposal system and the awareness among health care professionals especially past expiry date. The cross-sectional survey-based study was performed in Karachi. Data was collected through an online Google questionnaire form. The results were analyzed. Among 203 responders, 65% (n=132) were females while the other 35% (n=71) were males. Approximately 57.1% (n=116) agreed that they are aware of the hazards and disposal of medication waste and 63.05% (n=128) think that it is the responsibility of Pharmacies Association and other re...
Minimizing pharmaceutical waste: The role of the pharmacist
Journal of Young Pharmacists, 2014
Objective: To explore the knowledge, attitudes and practice of pharmacists about medication disposal and their awareness about potential environmental effects of inappropriate drug disposal. Materials and Methods: A prevalidated, structured questionnaire with both open-and close-ended questions was distributed to a random cohort of 150 pharmacists of an urban town of North India.The questionnaire assessed disposal of leftover and expired drugs by pharmacists and their knowledge of drug disposal by the distributors. The awareness of the correct method of drug disposal, ways to minimize the pharmaceutical waste and extent of dissemination of information about drug disposal to patients was also evaluated. Results: The response rate was 56%. Although majority of the pharmacies have a system to dispose expired and leftover drugs, the knowledge about disposal was found to be incomplete. Most of the leftover drugs belonging to different dosage forms were returned to the distributor. One-third pharmacists did not know the correct method to dispose drugs. Majority of them did not advise patients about disposal of unused drugs. Only 58% believed that improper drug disposal is intimately connected to environmental pollution. Conclusion: Pharmacists have new roles and responsibilities to function as collaborative members of healthcare team by disseminating information about correct ways to dispose unused drugs.
Safe Disposal of Medication Practices
2020
Unused and expired drug at home often carries the risk of accidental ingestion by children and pets moreover; it also creates confusion among geriatric patients receiving multiple drugs. Variation of disposal methods have been observed throughout the globe. Many studies throughout the world reported inappropriate disposal practices such as discard the unused medicines via the garbage, sink, and toilet. These methods ultimately have toxic effects on human and environment. Therefore, proper disposal of unused drug is paramount important. There must be some well designed disposal system for disposing of unused, unwanted, or expired drugs. Safe disposal methods as described by World Health Organization (WHO) are incinerations, inertization, returned to pharmacy or supplier, encapsulation, chemical decomposition. Therefore, these methods are required to be followed for safe disposal.