Time to look for expire Medicines and Herbs!

Today...
I had been clean all cabinets to throw it away old medicines and herbs to keep away from children taking.

This message was edited Monday, Jul 21st 7:55 PM

That's such a good thing to do, RedRose. Thanks for the reminder!

Good reminder, RR. Expired medications are good to keep away from children, *and* from parents. :)

It worries me a little to think of what might happen if the entire nation did this about the same time. How much can our water hold without a chemical disaster? Some of the things we take might not be such a good thing in the water supply, where they will eventually end up. For instance, if all of the DG members taking warfarin suddenly tossed it into the toilet, and that continued to happen regularly, isn't there eventually going to be a saturation point? If all of us, almost 60,000 people, decided to clean out and discard into the water supply all of our unused antibiotics and insulin and mood elevators and sleeping potions and cough medicines and blood pressure medications and heart medications, wouldn't there be at least some measurable amount in the water, and wouldn't at least a part of this amount remain and be eventually added to by industry and other people?

I place my unused and expired medicines into a bag and take them to my pharmacist. He assures me he has an approved method for discarding them.

Ok thanks Aimee for advice about this did not know that so I am glad to know now thank again~ so.... next one just finished throw all old junkie mails and magazines trash three time garbage. I feel better. so >>> Tomorrow plan on looking for all clothes which don't wear anymore will give to Good Will also things stuff too never use get rid of it. That a lot of work to do today now my back hurt some but I will be fine. =D

This message was edited Friday, Jul 18th 5:12 PM

You are welcome, Rose! Sounds like you have a huge nesting urge going on, hehehe. I love the times when I get a burst of inspiration and clear out things, but haven't done it in quite a long time. My closets drive me bonkers. I usually have a large bag of things to take to our thrift store in Georgetown, and just keep tossing things into it. Recently, I decided it was time to take it there, and put it into the trunk of the car. Then the suspension system went out, so I had to haul it back out again, and it's now sitting out on the back path waiting for me to get ambitious enough to take it. They don't accept things after three o'clock, and I just hate to get out in the heat of the day. It means I need to do it on my way to lab, usually about mid-morning. So you have now sort of ignited my resolve. But it's too late today, so I have to wait until Monday. Wish me luck.

;)

RR, I read an article a couple of years ago about the large amounts of "medicines" (NOT the actual pills, capsules, etc) found in our rivers, from people flushing them down the toilet. It affects our fish, and the aquatic plants. Apparently our sewage treatment plants are not sufficient to filter out many of those chemicals before releasing the water into our waterways.

The suggestion was to put them in several layers of plastic bags and put them in the trash that goes to the landfill.

Either way, I guess it is harmful, but in the long run, I'd choose the landfill. Plastic bags take forever to decompose, and all that stuff is buried anyway.

Thanks for bringing this concept up. I am sure many of us have plenty of items to "discard." A google search yielded-
1. California has no plan.
2. Wisconsin recommends donating the medications, so that others may use them - or send back to manufacturer, etc. DO NOT FLUSH into septic tank http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/aw/wm/faq/faqmiw14.htm
3. Ohio State University advises flushing.
4. Another site indicated giving to pharmacy is required in Europe - but the US doesn't have a plan.
5. British Columbia (Canada) started a pharmacy return program in 2001.
6. Drugstore.com advises flushing.

Looks like there is no concensus. Flushing does help insure that the drugs are not directly consumed by any animal or person. It does dilute the medications.
My last real go at it was when a relative died. I kept some of the patent drug containers. They were older than 1962 (the date zip codes came into being.) and some of them were very decorative. The rest were wrapped and dumped.
Hope I did the right thing, or at least that someday someone will figure out what the right thing is!