Time to terminate of Unused Medicines

If your medicine cabinet is out of control and prescription drugs seem to be creeping onto counter tops and into nooks and crannies around the house, it’s time to take action and safely get rid of your stash of unwanted and unused medicines.

You may assume unused and obsolete medicines area unit simply a nuisance, however they’ll gift a true danger through substance abuse or accidental o.d.. Prescription drugs were concerned in additional than twenty,000 o.d. deaths in 2008, more than half of the total 36,450 overdose deaths that year, according to a recent study. If youngsters board or visit your house, it’s even a lot of necessary to form positive the medicine want|you would like|you wish} area unit safely keep and also the ones you do not need area unit disposed of safely.

Many years ago, when I was a young child, the little brother of a friend of mine got mad because we weren’t playing with him. He went within the toilet, climbed on the bathroom, then climbed on the sink, opened his medicine cabinet, and ate a bottle of children’s aspirin. Fortunately, his mother got him to the hospital quickly, and he recovered. But not all kids are so lucky. It was a lesson to Pine Tree State that even once you assume your medicines area unit safely keep and out of the reach of kids, some youngsters is terribly determined, and it solely takes a second for Associate in Nursing accident to occur.

A study printed in Annals of medicine reportable that almost ten,000 terribly young youngsters accidentally eaten opiates prescribed for adults in their house between 2003 and 2006.

The yankee school of Emergency Physicians, sponsor of the national challenge, suggests you inventory all the medicines in your household, both prescription and over-the-counter, and get rid of any that you aren’t using or that have expired.

Forty-four states, the District of Columbia and 2 Native yankee nations area unit taking part within the drug disposal event.

• Take inventory of your prescription and over-the-counter medicine.
• Secure your medicines.
• Dispose of your unused, unwanted and expired medicines at an American Medicine Chest Challenge disposal site or in the trash as outlined below.
• Take your medicine(s) exactly as prescribed.
• Talk to your children about the dangers of drug abuse.

Here are the federal guidelines for safe disposal of prescription medications:

• Take prescription drugs out of their original containers.
• Mix the drugs with an unappealing substance, such as cat litter or used coffee grounds.
• Put the mixture in a disposable container with a lid or in a sealable bag.
• Conceal or remove any personal information, including the prescription number, on the empty container by covering it with black permanent marker or duct tape or by scratching it off.
• Place the sealed container with the mixture and the empty drug containers in the trash.