-
Mar 23, 2008 5:14 pm US/Eastern
-
Digg |
Facebook |
E-mail
|
Print
3 On Your Side: Disposing Medications
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
Many of us have old medicine bottles lying around the house. And with the recent news about prescription drugs detected in our drinking water, we should think about where we toss old medications. 3 On Your Side's Jim Donovan has advice from the experts.
Many people toss their old or expired medications in the garbage, or flush them down the toilet. But the federal government says that's a no-no. "If you flush medications in the toilet, they can get into ground water and cause environmental problems and if you throw them in the garbage, they can get into the wrong hands," said Birnur Aral with the Good Housekeeping Research Institute.
In fact, the government recently issued some guidelines on how to properly dispose medications. The safest way to dispose of pills is to mix them with your old coffee grounds. "Drug addicts look for medication bottles so you should take the medications out of the bottles, put them in a container or zip-top bag and mix them with old coffee grounds and cayenne pepper," said Aral. This will keep curious kids and animals away.
For liquid medications, Good Housekeeping says, try a little cat litter. Transfer liquid medications out of their bottles into another container, place some sawdust, cat litter or sand to solidify them and then you can throw it all away.
And Good Housekeeping also says you should always blackout any personal information on the discarded, empty bottles. Another option on how to dispose of old medication, ask your pharmacist. Some pharmacies do take them back.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)