[Pharmwaste] MD County proposes pharmacy take-back programs

[Tenace, Laurie]

County takes on drugs in waste water
http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=81975


By Meg Tully 
News-Post Staff 

Frederick County Commissioners President Jan Gardner wants to get unused
medicines out of the water supply, but federal requirements might make that
difficult.
Gardner has proposed requiring pharmacies to offer take-back programs as part
of the county's state 2009 legislative list of priorities.

The program is intended to prevent residents from flushing pills down the
toilet or putting them in the trash.

Once pharmacies have the medications, they could coordinate proper disposal,
such as incineration.

Federal regulations of controlled substances, however, prohibit pharmacies
from accepting medications, such as prescription pain killers, that are
regulated by the Drug Enforcement Agency, according to a spokesman.

DEA spokesman Brian Boyle said there is no legal mechanism for pharmacies to
accept unused medications defined as controlled substances.

The agency sees a need for such interactions, however, and is working with
Congress to authorize it, he said.

Under current law, only law enforcement agencies working with the DEA can
accept unused controlled substances at a local level.

When the county's Division of Utilities and Solid Waste Management offers
unused medication drop offs at the landfill during its twice yearly hazardous
waste collection, the division coordinates with the Frederick County
Sheriff's Office to meet those requirements.

Such coordination might be difficult to administer at every pharmacy.

Gardner said she wants to do more homework on the issue. The commissioners
will discuss the legislative package today, so it is not yet known if this
proposal will move forward.

Jack Lynch, a Frederick resident on the Monocacy Scenic River Board and a
board member of Friends of Frederick County, said studies are still being
conducted, but many believe discarded pharmaceuticals and other endocrine
disruptors could harm humans and the environment.

He frequently attends regional water quality summits and believes a federal
solution is needed. In the meantime, he hopes state programs can lead the
way.

It is a growing problem, but difficult to address he said. "It's just a very
tricky area of the law, and it's not going to have a quick solution."

Scientists have yet to determine the impact of unused medicines on aquatic
systems and on humans drinking them in water, but some studies suggest they
cause reproductive changes in fish and pose health risks to humans.

The Environmental Protection Agency is taking steps to understand the
potential impacts of pharmaceuticals in water, including a study of how
institutions like hospitals and jails dispose of medicines.

The EPA is commissioning the National Academy of Sciences to advise on the
potential risk to human health from low levels of pharmaceutical residues in
drinking water.

The NAS will convene a workshop of scientific experts Dec. 11 through 12, to
advise the agency on methods for screening and prioritizing pharmaceuticals
to determine potential risk.

In Frederick County, a planned upgrade to the Ballenger-McKinney Wastewater
Treatment Plant is expected to dramatically increase the county's ability to
remove dissolved medications from sewage.

Treatment of water leached from the landfill, however, does not remove
medications. And once the chemicals are removed from waste water, they will
likely still be present in the sewage sludge that is typically applied to
farmland.

The county is discussing a study with the U.S. Geologic Service on the amount
of chemicals coming into the plant, how many are removed in each treatment
process, and how many remain in the sludge.

Mike Marschner, director of the county's Division of Utilities and Solid
Waste Management, said he believes the county needs to take an integrated
approach to the problem.

More pharmaceutical collections are needed, he said, but waste treatment
options must still be considered because some medicines remain in human
waste, and some problematic chemicals come from other products.

"The more we understand about this, and the more pharmaceuticals are
prevalent in society É and the more we have learned about them, the more we
feel they need to be regulated," he said. 


Laurie Tenace
Environmental Specialist
Waste Reduction Section
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
2600 Blair Stone Rd., MS 4555
Tallahassee FL 32399-3000
P: 850.245.8759
F: 850.245.8811

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

Unwanted Medicine:
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/categories/medications/default.htm



The Department of Environmental 

Protection values your feedback as a customer. DEP Secretary Michael W. Sole is committed to continuously assessing and 

improving the level and quality of services provided to you. Please take a few minutes to comment on the quality of 

service you received. Copy the url below to a web browser to complete the DEP 

survey: http://survey.dep.state.fl.us/?refemail=Laurie.Tenace@dep.state.fl.us Thank you in advance for completing the survey.