Disposal of household pharmaceuticals in insular communities: social attitude, behaviour evaluation and prevention activities (original) (raw)
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NATO Science for Peace and Security Series C: Environmental Security, 2012
Consumption of the pharmaceutical products for both human and veterinary use is constantly increasing. As the consequence considerable amount of pharmaceuticals and its metabolites is released into the environment at therapeutic concentrations. The aim of this article is to describe patient practice and knowledge of unused drugs disposal in some rural areas of Croatia. Results showed that mostly older population live in these areas with considerable co morbidity of various chronic diseases, using considerable number of pharmaceuticals. Educational level and therapy compliance is low, as well as knowledge on how to dispose unused pharmaceuticals. On the other hand, due to the relative geographical isolation there is tendency to stock various pharmaceuticals as well as self-medication. Unused drugs end up improperly disposed in the ecologically delicate environment rich in drinking water supply. Strong support from primary health care is needed as well from pharmacies for returning of unused pharmaceutical when possible or clear advice how to properly dispose them if they cannot be returned.
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 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.
Attitudes towards the use and disposal of unused medications in two European countries.
Waste Management, 2013
The use of pharmaceuticals has led to considerable improvements in human and animal health. As a consequence of disposal also needs to be considered, making pharmaceuticals a waste management concern. While the disposal of waste pharmaceutical residues through the wastewater stream is widely studied, there are limited data on the disposal of unused pharmaceuticals. It is essential to ascertain why such a paucity of data exists, to identify the disposal strategies that would be accepted by the community and to incorporate this knowledge into an educational campaign. An understanding of current disposal practices and the relevance of the various routes of unused pharmaceutical entry into the environment can help inform policy development and ensure that the disposal methods are adequate to protect human health and the environment. These considerations were the focus of an online survey of current attitudes and practices related to the use and disposal of medication conducted within Malta and the Republic of Ireland in early 2012. 1130 response were received. Although located within different European regions, the health systems of the two countries are similar; the total annual expenditure per capita on health at US$4952 and US$4264 in Ireland and Malta respectively. However, costs for a General Pratictioner (GP) visit in Ireland are around 4-5 times those in Malta.
Issues around household pharmaceutical waste disposal through community pharmacies in Croatia
International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, 2014
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Medication Disposal: A Reflection About Possible Sanitary and Environmental Risks
Ambiente & Sociedade
This article has analyzed the drug disposal form by the population of Distrito Federal (DF), reflecting about its possible health and environmental risks. For that, an exploratory cross-sectional study was conducted based on interviews with residents of all Territorial Planning Units in DF. Among the 393 interviewees, 73.8% had a stock of medicines at home, 78.9% had already discarded drugs, which were mostly done in the common waste (73,6%). Adequate discharge was strongly associated with greater schooling (p = 0,027), higher economic classification (p = 0,005), male sex (p = 0,006) and with receiving information about the subject (p <0,001). It is noted that the inappropriate disposal of drugs is common. It presents the need to incorporate the theme into specific policies and media.
Household pharmaceutical waste management modelling -A case study of Serbia
The increasing amount of pharmaceutical waste and its inadequate management in Serbia, urged the Authors to develop a regional model based on the results of multi-criteria optimization processes of pharmaceutical waste management. The most important criteria are: the quantities of various groups of pharmaceutical waste, the characteristics of technologies for pharmaceutical waste treatment and environmental impacts of pharmaceutical waste. It has been estimated that about 14,450 tons of bio-hazardous waste will be generated in Serbian medical institutions in 2015. If we take into account the additional 6610 tons, which are supposed to be generated in outpatient health institutions, the expected annual quantity of waste will be over 21,000 tons. About 3% (6300 tons) of the total waste is pharmaceutical waste. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the quantity of medical waste will amount to about 8.5 kg per capita in the year to come. In Serbia, there is limited amount of data and information on the environmental and health impacts of pharmaceutical waste. The survey was conducted in the area of the Nis district (south-eastern Serbia) and covered the 5.24% of the total population of Serbia. The examined area includes six municipalities, with 376,309 inhabitants living in 285 settlements but in terms of the number of settlements, population and households, and socioeconomic characteristics, the chosen area could be representative for the whole territory of Serbia. The questionnaire provides the following qualitative indicators: the structure and characteristics of households (age of household members), technical characteristics of home pharmacies (premise and storage place) and the respondents use of medications (daily dose, side effects, disposing unused or expired medicines, doctors and pharmacists consultation on the use of medications, etc.). A special part of the questionnaire regards the listing of household medications in terms of: name, type, dose, expiration date, number of medication packages or, manner and frequency of medication intake (medication regimen) and the groups of medications according to the ATC classification system. ATC classification system provides a good basis for the selection and implementation of suitable treatment methods of expired medications (EMEA, 2006) choosing among: sanitary landfills, encapsula-tion, safe burial on hospital premises, discharge to a sewer and incineration. Almost all respondents (97%) throw the expired and unused medications in the household trash, and only 3% of the respondents take them back to the pharmacy. More than two thirds (68.03%) of the total number of packages in the examined households have been classified into five ATC groups. The most common groupsare N-nervous system (16.81%) and C-cardiovascular system (13.78%). 21,356 packages of medications were found in the households involved in the survey (8.21 items per household), of which 2610 or 12.22% (slightly more than one package per household) were expired medications. The results obtained in this study are correlated with data from the National Waste Management Strategy which claims that 2410 tons of hazardous medical waste (0.33 kg/capita/year) are generated in The Republic of Serbia every year (SEPA, 2013). In this study, the calculated annual generation of pharmaceutical waste in Serbia is 74.92 tons/year. A basic framework for the pharmaceutical waste management regional model can, therefore, be suggested:-more than two thirds (64.77%) of the total quantity of expired medications belong to S, A, M, V, NATC groupscounting about 48.5 tons/year. The developed model predicts regional systems of waste collection and treatment for this group of pharmaceuticals;-ATC groups R, C and D and eco-friendly model suggests the establishment of a network of regional collection annually count about 17.5 tons of pharmaceutical waste (23.33% of the total). The developed cost effective centres, as well as the possibility of treatment at national level;-the remaining six ATC groups (B, S, P, G, H and L) count the 11.9% of the total pharmaceutical waste (8.91 tons annually). The proposed model predicts their collection and treatment at national level, or the export to treat them in other countries (see Fig. 1).
Improper disposal practice of unused and expired pharmaceutical products in Indonesian households
Heliyon, 2020
Background: Improperly disposed medicines could adversely affect the environment and increase the risk of drug misuse or accidental poisoning. Objective: To evaluate the disposal practices of unused and expired medicines among the general population in Bandung, Indonesia. Method: This was a descriptive cross-sectional survey conducted among 497 respondents in Bandung, Indonesia. Data were collected through interviews using a prevalidated structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were calculated using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 23. Ethics approval was obtained. Main outcome measure: General public knowledge and attitude regarding unused and expired medication disposal practice. Results: Approximately 95% of the respondents had unused medicines stored in their homes, with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), vitamins/nutritional supplements, and antibiotics were the most common types of medicines left unused. The majority of the respondents checked the expiration date of the drugs before purchasing (72.8%). The most common disposal method of unwanted medicines was throwing away in household garbage (82.1%). A significant percentage of them never received information about proper medication disposal practice (79.5%). Furthermore, more than half of the respondents were unaware that unsafe medication disposal practices could harm the environment and population health (53.1%). Conclusion: Disposal of unwanted pharmaceutical products through environmentally unsafe route was prevalent among the respondents. There is also a lack of awareness of the impact of improperly disposed of medicines for the ecosystem. These findings call upon the strategies to strengthen the pharmaceutical waste management program.
IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering
Pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) are common products being used widely and easily accessible to everyone. While it is beneficial for human use, the adverse effects once introduced to the ecosystem are alarming. Studies also show that PPCPs penetrated the surface water bodies. Numerous studies have proven that the occurrences of PPCPs especially in the water bodies have given substantial effects towards animals especially those associated with water. This trace has changed the physical features of the animals and has significantly reduced the amount of the species at the area. Even though the amount of PPCPs being introduced to the environment increasing based on the usage by consumers, a lot of studies have been carried out to remove the PPCPs from the environment using advanced technologies. Considering the feasibility of the technologies to be implemented, most of these novelties are yet to be installed in the water treatment plant due to its installation cost, ma...
Aspects Regarding the Pharmaceutical Waste Management in Romania
Sustainability
The issue of drug disposal, as well as the development and implementation of efficient collection strategies, represents an important concern at the highest European level. This research looks into the factors that could have an impact on the efficiency of pharmacies in collecting and disposing the medicinal waste of the population. There were 521 pharmacists from all over the country who filled in a questionnaire on their opinion/attitude related to the system of collecting and disposing the pharmaceutical waste of the population. Of the surveyed pharmacists, 16% work in pharmacies that do not collect unused/expired drugs from the population, and nearly 33% of those investigated have refused, at least once, to take the unused medicines from the people. Pharmacists’ most important reasons for refusing to collect the pharmaceutical waste were the lack of procedure, incomplete legislation, exceeding the amount contracted with the operators, and high costs. Results show that pharmacies...