FW: [Pharmwaste] Rates of consumer drug generation

Tenace, Laurie Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us
Mon Oct 13 12:08:30 EDT 2008


Forwarding a response to Charlotte's question

 

Laurie J. Tenace
Environmental Specialist
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
2600 Blair Stone Road, MS 4555
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2400
PH: (850) 245-8759
FAX: (850) 245-8811
Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us 

Mercury web pages:
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/categories/mercury/default.htm

Unwanted Medications web pages:
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/categories/medications/default.htm




Please Note:  Florida has a very broad public records law.  Most written
communications to or from state officials regarding state business are public
records available to the public and media upon request.  Your e-mail is
communications and may therefore be subject to public disclosure.





From: Gina Temple-Rhodes [mailto:gina.Temple-Rhodes at WLSSD.Duluth.MN.US] 
Sent: Monday, October 13, 2008 12:04 PM
To: Charlotte A. Smith; pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: RE: [Pharmwaste] Rates of consumer drug generation

 

Hi Charlotte and others:

 

During 4 events in the past year at WLSSD in Duluth, we have facilitated
collection of 1640 lbs of drug waste from 1096 households. These totals do
include some packaging weight, and works out to about 1.5 lbs per household. 

 

The totals varied a bit between each collection, but the first collection in
October 07 yielded the same average as the last collection held in Sept 08
(1.6 lbs per household). We didn't track repeat households in our survey
(i.e. were the households who brought in meds to later events all new
participants who were cleaning out old material, or did the some of the same
households generate that much between events?).

 

At all collections, we saw plenty of old medications (usually quite a few
from the 80's) and heard from residents that they didn't know how to dispose
of meds, so tended to hold onto them. But we also saw lots of recently
expired items. Hope that info is helpful; it's not simply newly generated
waste, but I think the consistency between events is interesting. 

 

Best wishes-

 

Gina Temple-Rhodes

Environmental Program Coordinator

Western Lake Superior Sanitary District

2626 Courtland Street

Duluth, MN 55806-1894

Direct Phone: 218-740-4784  

Fax 218-727-7471

www.wlssd.com <http://www.wlssd.com/> 

 

 

 

 

  _____  

From: pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us
[mailto:pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us] On Behalf Of Charlotte A.
Smith
Sent: Friday, October 10, 2008 7:12 PM
To: pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: [Pharmwaste] Rates of consumer drug generation

Hi Everyone,

 

I am trying to develop some metrics for the number of pounds of drug waste
generated by consumers/year. I know this is very difficult since we have such
a backlog. It would be helpful to know if any of you are tracking poundage
per household per year over several years. That would give me a starting
point. ( I am assuming that most drop-offs are per household rather than per
individual, even though some households may be single persons.) If you have
any estimated rates of usage per population based on follow-up surveys, that
would also be very helpful.  Thank you very much for any information you can
provide.

 

Best regards,

 

Charlotte A. Smith, R. Ph., M.S., HEM

President

PharmEcology Associates, LLC

12229 W. North Ave., Suite 2

Wauwatosa, WI 53226

414-292-3959

414-915-4026(cell)

csmith at pharmecology.com



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