[Pharmwaste] Illinois Prohibits Health Facilities from Flushing Meds

[TBadrick at aol.com]

Its unlikely you would see it in the drain effluent, but a complete  
no-brainer to come in and ask employees or review policies. Given there are  RCRA 
regulated drugs...since oh say the 1970's you have an open door  to come in 
and inspect by the State. My former employer had a 2 year old  hospital with 
a catch basin where sharps were found...its not that hard to find  mistakes 
if you know where to look and want to find them.  
 
Actually it wouldn't be that hard to sample a sink or hopper and find trace 
 on the surface as evidence. 
 
If I were in Illinois I'd be crawling thru the policy manuals tonight...all 
 of them to make sure nothing is missed.  Having spent enough time in  
hospital committees changing policy in a healthcare system, you are looking  at 
6 months or more work at a minimum.
 
I applaud the State of Illinois for doing this even though the bulk of  
pharm pollution does not come from healthcare settings.  Its a start and  one 
which will reverberate throughout the entire healthcare system, thus to  
customers.
 
 
 
In a message dated 8/19/2009 1:04:49 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
Deborah.DeBiasi at deq.virginia.gov writes:

Unless someone  is ‘caught in the act’ of flushing unused medications, I  
don’t know how they could monitor and enforce this given the amount  of 
medications that are excreted.  A positive result will be awareness  along with 
better guidance and SOPs in health care  facilities. 
******** 
_http://wwn-online.com/articles/2009/08/17/illinois-prohibits-health-facilit
ies-from-flushing-meds.aspx_ 
(http://wwn-online.com/articles/2009/08/17/illinois-prohibits-health-facilities-from-flushing-meds.aspx)  
Illinois Prohibits Health Facilities from Flushing  Meds 
Aug 17,  2009  
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn on  Aug. 10 signed several key environmental bills, 
including one that will  prohibit health care institutions from flushing 
unused medications into public  wastewater. Other legislation will track water 
usage by high capacity wells  throughout the state. 
“This action is another  important step in protecting our state’s precious 
natural resources,” said  Quinn. “Keeping our water safe from unused 
medications and tracking water  usage will help us preserve our waterways for 
future  generations.” 
Senate Bill 1919 creates the  Pharmaceutical Disposal Act and was sponsored 
by Sen. Susan Garrett (D-Lake  Forest) and Rep. Karen May (D-Highwood). The 
new law provides that health care  institutions may not discharge, dispose, 
flush, pour or empty any unused  medication into a public wastewater 
collection system or septic system.  Violators are subject to a fine. 
"For years, disposing unused  or expired medicines in wastewater was 
common, even recommended practice.  Today, we’re making clear how serious we are 
at stopping this practice before  Illinois faces an environmental or 
community health crisis," said Sen.  Garrett. 
The bill can be found  here:  
_http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=1919&GAID=10&DocTypeID=SB&SessionID=76&GA=96_ 
(http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=1919&GAID=10&DocTypeID=SB&SessionID=76&GA=
96)  
Deborah L. DeBiasi
Email:  Deborah.DeBiasi at deq.virginia.gov (NEW!)
WEB site  address:  www.deq.virginia.gov
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
Office of Water  Permit Programs
Industrial  Pretreatment/Toxics Management Program
PPCPs, EDCs, and  Microconstituents
Mail:          P.O. Box  1105, Richmond, VA  23218 (NEW!)
Location:  629 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA   23219
PH:         804-698-4028
FAX:  804-698-4032   


---
Note: As a courtesy to  other listserv subscribers, please post messages to 
the listserv in plain text  format to avoid the garbling of messages 
received by digest  recipients.
---
TO SUBSCRIBE, go to:    
http://lists.dep.state.fl.us/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pharmwaste 
TO  UNSUBSCRIBE, DO NOT REPLY TO THE LISTSERV. Please send an e-mail to  
pharmwaste-unsubscribe at lists.dep.state.fl.us -- the subject line and body of  
the e-mail should be blank.
If you believe you may be subscribed with a  different email address, 
please visit the subscriber listing at  
http://lists.dep.state.fl.us/cgi-bin/mailman/roster/pharmwaste 
FOR  PROBLEMS:  Contact List Administrator Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us  
SEND MAIL to the list server at:   pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.dep.state.fl.us/pipermail/pharmwaste/attachments/20090819/1a2032c3/attachment.htm