[Pharmwaste] Pharmaceutical Corrosives

[Jeff Hollar]

I just posted this on the Practice Greenhealth listserve, but thought it
would be beneficial to many of the members of this Pharmwaste listserve as
well.  

 

Many of our hospital pharmacy customers are surprised to find out that their
pharmaceutical inventory contains potentially corrosive waste other than a
few compounding chemicals.  One good example of this is Sporanox Solution by
JOM.  A review of the package insert indicates a target pH of 2.   We have
performed internal tests and found the mode average pH to be closer to 1.  A
liquid waste with a pH of 1 is considered corrosive waste by the EPA and
carries an EPA waste code of D003.  It is also considered corrosive when
shipping by the DOT and carries a DOT shipping number of 8.

We have found the pharmaceutical corrosive waste stream to be overlooked in
many of the pharmaceutical inventories that we've analyzed.  For those
pharmacies performing their own waste identification analysis, I would
encourage them to closely review the pH's of the liquids and solutions in
their inventory.  

 

Jeff Hollar

President

PharmWaste Technologies, Inc.

Urbandale, IA 50322

Email: jhollar at pwaste.com

Website: www.pwaste.com

515-276-5302

 

 

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