Drugs are an important aspect of disease prevention and treatment. The process involved in getting rid of drugs that have expired or are no longer relevant is what is referred to as pharmaceutical disposal. At the household level, expired medication is usually discarded in the bin unless it is contraindicated by instructions on the label. On a large scale, guidelines are necessary to ensure correct and safe disposal. Such guidelines exist in California.
Disposal guidelines come in handy for donations since they are highly prone to wastage. This is because the packages may come written in a language that cannot be understood by the recipients. The package may also be delivered when it is almost expired thus limiting utilization. On the other hand, packages with long shelf life may be misused by opportunistic recipients. Also, the destination facility may not have capacity to effectively store the supplies.
Guidelines are therefore very important for management of donation related drugs. Expiry date of these donation may within one year or more from the time of shipment to the donation. Giving out drugs whose shelf life is less than a year is only beneficial to destination areas that have good storage systems.
Methods used to dispose off drugs must not only be affordable but also ensure they do not expose the public to associated risk. The optimal option is incineration at high temperature, usually above one thousand two hundred degrees Celsius. Unfortunately, resources may only be available in the developed world.
To ensure safety, all individuals taking part in the disposal procedure must wear gloves, masks, boots, overalls and other protective wear as deemed necessary. Masks are particularly appropriate when crushing tablets to avoid powder splashing into the eyes. Sorting should be done to identify drugs which are still in good to be used again and those that need discarding. Disposable ones are sorted out further according to what method is to be used for disposal.
Land filling is one of the cost effective methods used in disposal. It entails dumping of solid waste at a given location directly without any initial preparation of the land or treatment of the waste. A disadvantage of this method though affordable is environmental exposure to pollution. Also, in term s of drug disposal, certain medication such as narcotics may be picked by scavengers at the site and reintroduced into the market.
Alternatively, expired medication can be collected in a container until it is approximately seventy five percent full after which additional harmless material fills up the container forming a block. This material may be in form of lime combined with cement or plain cement. Care should be taken that not potential explosives are present in the containers.
Flushing drugs down the toilet is a simple technique of disposing of medicines. This, however, may only be restricted to particular forms such as intravenous fluids and syrups. It is not recommended to discard non biodegradable drugs in sewers as this may cause contamination of the entire treatment process. It is also not advisable to release antineoplastics into water systems as this may kill aquatic animals.
Disposal guidelines come in handy for donations since they are highly prone to wastage. This is because the packages may come written in a language that cannot be understood by the recipients. The package may also be delivered when it is almost expired thus limiting utilization. On the other hand, packages with long shelf life may be misused by opportunistic recipients. Also, the destination facility may not have capacity to effectively store the supplies.
Guidelines are therefore very important for management of donation related drugs. Expiry date of these donation may within one year or more from the time of shipment to the donation. Giving out drugs whose shelf life is less than a year is only beneficial to destination areas that have good storage systems.
Methods used to dispose off drugs must not only be affordable but also ensure they do not expose the public to associated risk. The optimal option is incineration at high temperature, usually above one thousand two hundred degrees Celsius. Unfortunately, resources may only be available in the developed world.
To ensure safety, all individuals taking part in the disposal procedure must wear gloves, masks, boots, overalls and other protective wear as deemed necessary. Masks are particularly appropriate when crushing tablets to avoid powder splashing into the eyes. Sorting should be done to identify drugs which are still in good to be used again and those that need discarding. Disposable ones are sorted out further according to what method is to be used for disposal.
Land filling is one of the cost effective methods used in disposal. It entails dumping of solid waste at a given location directly without any initial preparation of the land or treatment of the waste. A disadvantage of this method though affordable is environmental exposure to pollution. Also, in term s of drug disposal, certain medication such as narcotics may be picked by scavengers at the site and reintroduced into the market.
Alternatively, expired medication can be collected in a container until it is approximately seventy five percent full after which additional harmless material fills up the container forming a block. This material may be in form of lime combined with cement or plain cement. Care should be taken that not potential explosives are present in the containers.
Flushing drugs down the toilet is a simple technique of disposing of medicines. This, however, may only be restricted to particular forms such as intravenous fluids and syrups. It is not recommended to discard non biodegradable drugs in sewers as this may cause contamination of the entire treatment process. It is also not advisable to release antineoplastics into water systems as this may kill aquatic animals.
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