[Pharmwaste] the "iPill"

[Tenace, Laurie]

Hi All,
I was looking at the April 2009 Reader's Digest and want to share short blurb
(page 18):

Smart Pills:
Philips Research has developed an Intelligent Pill, or iPill, designed to
deposit medicine in specific places in the human body and radio information
to doctors as it travels there.

****

Since incomplete metabolism contributes some portion of drugs to our waste
water, this kind of research will eventually help provide the upstream
solution to that problem. If they can target the drug to a specific site, the
amount of unused active ingredient circulating throughout our bodies and
being flushed will be decreased. 

(hopefully it won't just create new, poorly-understood waste streams for us
to worry about!)

Laurie Tenace
Environmental Specialist
Waste Reduction Section
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
2600 Blair Stone Rd., MS 4555
Tallahassee FL 32399-2400
P: 850.245.8759
F: 850.245.8811
Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us 

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



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