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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>I just ran across this article and thought I'd pass it
along. Beware the ick factor.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Original can be found at <a
href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21641396/">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21641396/</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Thanks,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Kelly Freeman</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Solid Waste Program Coordinator</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Capital Area Council of Governments</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>512-916-6040 Phone</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>512-916-6001 Fax</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><a href="mailto:kfreeman@capcog.org">kfreeman@capcog.org</a>
</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<h1><b><font size=6 color="#cc0000" face=Georgia><span style='font-size:21.5pt'>Don’t
flush leftover meds — mix with kitty litter<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<h2><b><font size=3 color=black face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Experts
say icky disposal method safer for kids and environment<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h2>
<p class=textbodyblack><a name="icon_U"></a><st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on"><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:9.5pt;
line-height:150%'>WASHINGTON</span></font></st1:place></st1:State> - It's
time to pooper-scoop your leftover medicine.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>Mixing </span></font><a
href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21641396/##" target="_blank"><font
color=darkgreen><span style='color:darkgreen'>cough syrup</span></font></a>,
Vicodin or Lipitor with cat litter is the new advice on getting rid of unused
medications. Preferably used cat litter.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>It's a compromise, better for the
environment than flushing — and one that renders dangerous medicines too
yucky to try if children, pets or drug abusers stumble through the trash.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><a name=storyContinued></a><font size=2 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>A government
experiment is about to send that advice straight to thousands of patients who
use potent painkillers, sleeping pills and other controlled substances.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>Why? Prescription drug abuse is on the
rise, and research suggests more than half of people who misuse those drugs get
them for free from a friend or relative. In other words, having leftovers in
the medicine cabinet is a risky idea. Anyone visiting your house could swipe
them.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>So 6,300 pharmacies around the country
have signed up for a pilot project with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration. When patients fill prescriptions for a list of
abuse-prone medicines, from Ambien to Vicodin, the pharmacist also will hand over
a flyer urging them to take the cat-litter step if they don't wind up using all
their pills.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>Not a cat owner? Old coffee grounds
work, or doggie doo, even sawdust. Just seal the meds and the, er, goop in a
plastic bag before tossing in the trash.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>"We don't want to assert that
this is a panacea for the larger problem," says SAMHSA's Dr. H. Westley
Clark. "It just provides them with a caveat that these are not things you
can just lay around."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>But the concern isn't only about
controlled substances. How to best dispose of any medicine, whether
prescription or over-the-counter, is a growing issue.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>Unfortunately, "we don't have a
silver bullet," says Joe Starinchak of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>No one knows just how many unused
drugs Americans dump each year, or how many are hoarded because patients simply
don't know what to do with them or that they should dispose of them.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><strong><b><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Verdana'>No more flushing</span></font></b></strong><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'><br>
</span></b>Once, patients were told to flush old drugs down the toilet. No more
— do not flush unless you have one of the few prescriptions that the Food
and Drug Administration specifically labels for flushing.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>That's because antibiotics, hormones
and other drugs are being found in waterways, raising worrisome questions about
potential health and environmental effects. Already, studies have linked
hormone exposure to fish abnormalities. Germs exposed to antibiotics in the
environment may become more drug-resistant.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>Some communities set aside
"take-back" days to return leftover doses to pharmacies or other
collection sites for hazardous-waste incineration. The </span></font><a
href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21641396/##" target="_blank"><font
color=darkgreen><span style='color:darkgreen'>Environmental Protection Agency</span></font></a>
recently funded a novel pilot program by the University of Maine to see if
consumers will mail back unused drugs — a program that local officials
estimate could cull up to 1.5 tons of medications.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>But it's not clear if incineration is
better for the environment than the slow seepage from a landfill, cautions the
Fish and Wildlife Service's Starinchak.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>Plus, take-back programs require legal
oversight to make sure what's collected isn't then diverted for illegal use.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>Starinchak calls the yucky-bag
disposal method interim advice — the top recommendation until more
research can determine the best way to balance the human health, environmental
and legal issues.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>So early next year, Fish and Wildlife
will team with the American Pharmacists Association for a larger campaign
called SMARxT Disposal. The campaign will spread this latest advice through
even more drugstores, to purchasers of all types of medicine.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>"There is a $64,000 question
here: Whether people really will get rid of it," says Carol J. Boyd,
director of the <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21641396/##"
target="_blank"><font color=darkgreen><span style='color:darkgreen'>University
of Michigan's</span></font></a> Institute for Research on Women and Gender and
a well-known specialist on drug diversion.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>Say you're prescribed a week's worth
of Vicodin for pain after a car crash, and you use only three days' worth. Most
people would keep the rest, to avoid paying for more if they suffer serious
pain for some other reason later. Boyd isn't sure how to counter that money
issue.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>But keeping the leftovers makes them
accessible for misuse by children, other relatives or visitors. Stealing aside,
Boyd's research uncovered that friends and family openly share these pills
— "Use this, it helped me" — even with teens and college
students, apparently not realizing there could be serious health consequences.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=textbodyblack><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;line-height:150%'>"The public needs to know
this," Boyd says of the disposal advice. "What's not easy is, we
don't know if it's working."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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