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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">FYI</span></p>
<h1 style="mso-line-height-alt:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#222222">Drug companies should help dispose of unneeded medicines<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h1 style="line-height:12.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/opinion/drug-companies-should-help-dispose-of-unneeded-medicines/">http://chicago.suntimes.com/opinion/drug-companies-should-help-dispose-of-unneeded-medicines/</a><o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#282828"><img border="0" width="360" height="261" id="Picture_x0020_11" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D180FB.87E31D50" alt="(AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File)"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:12.0pt;box-sizing: border-box;font-size:0.8rem;line-height:1.3rem;text-rendering: optimizeLegibility">
<i><span style="font-family:inherit;color:#282828">(AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#9A9A9A"><a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/author/sun-times-editorial-board/"><span style="color:#282828">Sun-Times Editorial Board</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box;margin:1.25rem;font-size:1rem;text-rendering: optimizeLegibility">
<span style="font-family:inherit;color:#282828"><br>
Drugs that collect in medicine cabinets are damaging public health and tainting our environment. We need a better way to dispose of them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box;margin:1.25rem;font-size:1rem;text-rendering: optimizeLegibility">
<span style="font-family:inherit;color:#282828">A proposal before the Cook County Board to require pharmaceutical companies to play a bigger role in the proper disposal of their products would be a significant step forward. On Thursday, the Metropolitan Water
Reclamation District went on record in favor of the concept, which is patterned after similar programs set up by counties in California and Washington state. The County Board should follow that recommendation and enact the ordinance when it comes up for a
vote next week.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:inherit;color:#282828">This week, the New York Times reported the nation is facing “one of the worst public health crises” in decades as huge numbers of people overdose on prescription drugs, including opiates.</span><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#282828"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:inherit;color:#282828">One source of those overdoses is leftover painkillers. A 2009 report by a Washington state consortium of government, businesses and nonprofits estimated 10 to 33 percent of prescribed medicines are not consumed.
That’s a public health disaster waiting to happen. Some of those unused drugs are finding their way into the hands of people addicted to prescription medications.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box;margin:1.25rem;font-size:1rem;text-rendering: optimizeLegibility">
<span style="font-family:inherit;color:#282828">Even if people quickly dispose of drugs they don’t need, they often go about it the wrong way, either because they don’t know better or because there are no convenient options. Too often, they just toss the drugs
into the garbage or flush them down the toilet. Either way, the medicines wind up in the environment, causing ecological havoc. A 2009 study by the University of Illinois at Chicago found 59 percent of Cook County respondents threw their unused medications
in the garbage and 31.3 percent flushed them down toilets or sinks.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box;margin:1.25rem;font-size:1rem;text-rendering: optimizeLegibility">
<span style="font-family:inherit;color:#282828">Researchers are finding signs that hormones and pharmaceutical compounds released into waterways are making fish act sluggishly, eat less and, in the case of male fish, grow female organs. And, yes, it’s happening
in Chicago area waterways. When National Geographic wanted to illustrate the array of medicine chest chemicals that get into fish, the magazine profiled fish pulled from Chicago’s North Shore Channel.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box;margin:1.25rem;font-size:1rem;text-rendering: optimizeLegibility">
<span style="font-family:inherit;color:#282828">And that’s just the aquatic life. No one knows what the effects are on humans, but when we drink Lake Michigan water, we drink whatever pharmaceutical traces get into it. Even the most advanced water treatment
plants can’t remove those traces. We’d be better off if all those drugs were properly disposed of before they get into the environment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box;margin:1.25rem;font-size:1rem;text-rendering: optimizeLegibility">
<span style="font-family:inherit;color:#282828">Several local efforts already are in place to help people safely dispose of these medicines. Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart operates a network of drop-off points. Some townships and other local governments do
the same. Walgreen’s has received approval to install year-round medication disposal kiosks at some of its locations. Twice a year, there’s been a National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box;margin:1.25rem;font-size:1rem;text-rendering: optimizeLegibility">
<span style="font-family:inherit;color:#282828">Despite those efforts, we still have “collection deserts,” where no drop-off location is handy. Even if there is a drop-off close by, the hours may be so restricted few people use it. The MWRD says there are just
66 permanent drop-off sites serving the entire county.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box;margin:1.25rem;font-size:1rem;text-rendering: optimizeLegibility">
<span style="font-family:inherit;color:#282828">That’s where the Cook County ordinance would step in. The big drug companies would be required to help ensure there’s a sustainably financed network of safe, secure and easy-to-get-to collection sites that covers
the entire county. Sheriff Dart would play a lead role in setting up and running the program. The drug companies also would be required to publicize the plan so everyone knows they should use it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box;margin:1.25rem;font-size:1rem;text-rendering: optimizeLegibility">
<span style="font-family:inherit;color:#282828">Setting up such a network and promoting it wouldn’t be free. But supporters say it would certainly cost less than a penny per prescription. The ordinance would prohibit drug companies from directly adding a new
fee to prescriptions to cover the cost.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box;margin:1.25rem;font-size:1rem;text-rendering: optimizeLegibility">
<span style="font-family:inherit;color:#282828">Asking companies to be good stewards of their products is becoming more common. Manufacturers of tires, batteries, electronics, paint and some other products have become more involved in keeping their products
from becoming environmental hazards after their useful lives. These companies are accepting responsibility for a cost of doing business that was previously picked up by society.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box;margin:1.25rem;font-size:1rem;text-rendering: optimizeLegibility">
<span style="font-family:inherit;color:#282828">Drug companies should be willing to do so, too.<br>
<em><span style="font-family:inherit">Follow the Editorial Board on Twitter:</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><i> </i></span><em><span style="font-family:inherit"><a href="https://twitter.com/csteditorials"><span style="color:#BDBDBD">Follow @csteditorials</span></a></span></em><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="box-sizing: border-box;margin:1.25rem;font-size:1rem;text-rendering: optimizeLegibility">
<span class="fa"><span style="font-family:FontAwesome;color:#9A9A9A;text-transform:uppercase">#</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#9A9A9A;text-transform:uppercase"> </span></b></span><b><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#9A9A9A;text-transform:uppercase"><a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/topic/public-health-crisis/"><span style="color:#9A9A9A">PUBLIC
HEALTH CRISIS</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/person/cook-county-sheriff-thomas-dart/"><span style="color:#9A9A9A">COOK COUNTY SHERIFF THOMAS DART</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/location/cook-county/"><span style="color:#9A9A9A">COOK
COUNTY</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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