Iowa TakeAway program keeps Rx out of water
NEW YORK The Associated Press. The remnants mostly were a result of patients disposing of unused medicines by flushing them down the toilet, and ranged from antibiotics in Denver’s tap water to the narcotic codeine in northern New Jersey. In response to the problem, small-scale initiatives have sprouted up around the country to collect unused medicines and educate patients about proper disposal, but one state is thinking bigger.—The drinking water of at least 46 million Americans living in two dozen metropolitan areas last year contained the remnants of improperly discarded pharmaceuticals, according to
Iowa recently launched the Iowa TakeAway program, an effort to enlist pharmacists throughout the state to collect patients’ unused medicines and keep them out of the water supply. The program is the result of legislation passed earlier this year that called for the creation of a “pharmaceutical collection and disposal pilot program” based around community pharmacies. In response to the legislation, the Iowa Board of Pharmacy and Iowa Pharmacy Association lobbied state legislators for funding to create such a program, securing a grant from the Department of Natural Resources and a partnership with Houston-based Sharps Compliance Corp., the same company that disposes of the medical waste thrown into red bins in private physician offices around the country and already had been collecting unused medications for two years and has similar programs in other areas, such as San Francisco.
“We have the only take-back program that’s approved by the U.S. Postal Service,” Sharps Compliance SVP sales and marketing Claude Dance told Drug Store News.
Under the program, patients bring their unused prescription and OTC medications to a participating pharmacy. Once the pharmacy fills an envelope, it sends it to Sharps Compliance’s destruction facility in Carthage, Texas. The program can accept solid medications and liquids, ointments and creams in quantities of less than 4 oz., though it can’t accept such items as test strips, gauze, rubbing alcohol or sharps.
A number of independent and regional chain pharmacies have enlisted to participate in the program, including Hy-Vee, though national chains have not signed on. “I think the national chains are saying, ‘If we do a program, we’ll provide it as a national solution versus a single-state initiative,’” Dance said.
The program could help take a lot of the contaminants out of water, but Dance said he saw other uses for it as well, such as improving patients’ medication compliance. A bottle containing unused pills to treat a chronic condition that requires careful attention to drug regimens could raise a pharmacist’s eyebrows.
“What the Iowa program is doing is providing the opportunity to interact with the pharmacist and have the pharmacist have a discussion,” Dance said. “It’s a counseling opportunity.”