[Pharmwaste] FW: Using a pet crematorium for disposal of unwantedmeds in Indiana

Volkman, Jennifer Jennifer.Volkman at state.mn.us
Tue Jul 1 16:38:18 EDT 2008


I like the graphic!  

As Susan notes, permitting/rules vary from state-to-state and I don't
believe we'd allow crematoria to take in pharms.  I am not sure what
emission controls there are on crematorium incinerators, but I believe
the controls are far better on SW incinerators.  In MN, the controlled
substances and HW pharms could not got to a crematorium, but that is
only about 10% of the total volume generally collected at these events.
Law enforcement has historically open burned or used a local utility
boiler to destroy them.  I'd have to think anything would be better than
those options.  There is a general lack of info on the impacts of
incineration of pharms and controlled substances.  Since pharms would
always be a minute portion of the tons of waste that goes through a SW
incinerator any given day, I don't think we could measure any changes to
stack emissions if we wanted to, but we could look for them in the ash.
In MN, collected SW Pharms can go to properly permitted SW incinerators,
but not to medical waste incinerators.  We have enough of those that it
would work out pretty well for a solution.  Right now, I believe all
collected pharms are going to HW incinerators, but the volume is small
enough that the cost has not been prohibitive.

-----Original Message-----
From: pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us
[mailto:pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us] On Behalf Of Tenace,
Laurie
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 2:59 PM
To: pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: [Pharmwaste] FW: Using a pet crematorium for disposal of
unwantedmeds in Indiana


Forward from a non-member

Laurie J. Tenace

From: Boehme.Susan at epamail.epa.gov [mailto:Boehme.Susan at epamail.epa.gov]

Sent: Monday, June 30, 2008 5:56 PM
To: pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: Using a pet crematorium for disposal of unwanted meds in
Indiana

I received this flyer for a collection event in Indiana and I noticed
that they advertise that the medicines will be properly disposed of at a
local pet crematorium.  This seems like a creative solution and one that
others could copy, depending on state laws.  Susan (See attached file:
OperationMedicineCabinetFlyer.pdf)

Susan E. Boehme, PhD
Coastal Sediment Specialist
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant
UIUC-NRES
Liaison to the U.S. EPA Great Lakes
National Program Office
77 W. Jackson Blvd. G-17J
Chicago, IL  60604-3511
312.353.4383
312.353.2018 fax
www.iisgcp.org


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