DEAR DR. GOTT:
In a recent article published in your column, you stated that “outdated medications can be discarded easily by flushing them down the toilet”.
We in Niagara County, NY, are currently working on a Pharmaceutical Waste Collection Program because, in part, an Associated Press article in the spring of 2008 reported on a five month inquiry into the drinking water of 62 metropolitan areas and 51 smaller cities. They found that the drinking water of at least 24 American cities contains trace amounts of a wide array of pharmaceuticals and their by-products. These include antibiotics, heart medications, psychiatric drugs, hormones such as those in birth control pills, and others.
Municipal drinking water supplies are extensively regulated by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which sets limits on certain contaminates, but there are no federal regulations handed down that include pharmaceuticals. The 24 cities that detected pharmaceuticals through voluntary testing efforts are under no obligation to report them, or treat for them. About half the utilities surveyed do not normally test for pharmaceuticals.
Environmentalists have been watching the feminization of fish increase and hypothesize the presence of hormones flushed into watersheds as a possible explanation.
According to research done by the Kaiser Family Foundation in 2006, the average number of prescriptions for each person increased from 7.9 in 1994 to 12.5 in 2005. Many older or chronically ill Americans have many more. Often, after the death of a parent or loved one, surviving family members are left with large amounts of powerful and potentially dangerous narcotics. Accidental overdose or the misuse of prescription medications has become a significant problem. Prescription narcotic abuse has become epidemic among adolescents. The source of those medications is typically their parents’ bathroom cabinets.
On June 7, 2008, the City of Rochester Water Bureau had a goal to collect 10,000 pills for the EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge. The event was an overwhelming success with 80,000 pills being collected. When combined with the 46,000 pills collected at a previous event, the final result is that the Rochester area collected 126,000 pills! That is 126,000 pills that have been kept out of the hands of adolescents and out of our ground water, drinking water and soil.
It is my hope that you will print this letter to encourage public officials to hold pharmaceutical waste collections.
DEAR READER:
Shortly after I printed that article, I received a truckload of letters telling me my error, some polite, others more harsh. When I received your letter, I was very impressed with the information you provided. Not only were you polite and informative, you also provided me with an opportunity to promote an excellent program. Your county appears to have done an amazing job collecting over 125,000 unused or outdated pills.
I have printed your letter in its entirety in the hopes that others counties and states around the country will use your program as an example. It not only keeps pills out of the soil and water, it also, as you pointed out, keeps them out of the hands of our youth. Thank you for writing.
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