[Pharmwaste] NEW! Los Angeles County Final Drug and Sharps Disposal Survey Report

[Heidi Sanborn]

Dear National Pharma Listserv:

Attached is a study just finalized on the results of Los Angeles County's Department of Public Health<http://www.takebackyourmeds.org/dea-events> public survey about medicine and needle disposal.  These results align with all the other surveys CPSC has done with some of our local governments and demonstrate the great need for safe and convenient medicine and needle disposal options and that the EPR options and pharmacy collections are what the public wants, not law enforcement which is generally too inconvenient.  A summary of some key results below.

Before pursuing any sharps or medication collection program, we highly recommend doing short and easy surveys of the public to gather baseline data to ensure the programs meet the needs of the public and will be effective.  If you would like our assistance in doing similar surveys quickly and affordably, please contact me at heidi at nsaction.us<mailto:heidi at nsaction.us>  or 916-402-3911.

Key Results:

When asked what they usually do with medicines, 69% use the trash or drain as their only method of medication disposal.

(24%) of respondents reported they, or someone in their household used medical sharps and (44%) reported disposing of sharps in the trash and/or drain (85selected trash and 2 selected drain),

All participants were asked to select one option they would prefer to use in the future to dispose of sharps and medicines free of charge: two-thirds (69%) chose a drop-off bin in a pharmacy; 15% chose mail-back envelopes; 8% chose drop-off boxes at clinics; and 7% chose drop-off boxes at sheriff or police stations.

All participants were asked what best described their response to the following statement, "One of the ways that has been suggested for people to dispose of unwanted medicines and sharps is to place them in drop-off bins in pharmacies". The vast majority of participants selected "this is a good approach" (87%) while 7% selected "undecided" and 6% selected "I have concerns".

The majority of commenters expressed support for safe, accessible, and convenient options for disposal of medicines and sharps.

Heidi

Heidi Sanborn
Executive Director
[NSAC Final logo-01 (33%)]
1822 21st Street, Suite 200
Sacramento, CA  95811
916-706-3420
heidi at nsaction.us<mailto:nsacpres at gmail.com>
www.nsaction.us<http://www.nsaction.us/>





-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.dep.state.fl.us/pipermail/pharmwaste/attachments/20160414/276d11e8/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 5721 bytes
Desc: image002.jpg
URL: <http://lists.dep.state.fl.us/pipermail/pharmwaste/attachments/20160414/276d11e8/attachment-0001.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Medicines and Sharps Disposal Survey Report FINAL 04-12-2016.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 716860 bytes
Desc: Medicines and Sharps Disposal Survey Report FINAL 04-12-2016.pdf
URL: <http://lists.dep.state.fl.us/pipermail/pharmwaste/attachments/20160414/276d11e8/attachment-0001.pdf>