The price of being responsible ...

[melchar]

... worked out to be 3 hours.

So I've been doing some cleaning - and part of what was in the dispose pile were some medicines [for pain - lots of cards or bottles for Nortriptyline, Gabapentin, Trazodone = these had no effect for me] - and a CPAP machine.

Took them to Kaiser, since that's where I got 'em. Kaiser moved hospital sites since I got the CPAP and it took almost an hour to fob the thing off on someone there.

Asked about the meds and was told that the pharmacy was prevented by Calif law from accepting meds back for disposal. Was told to go to a fire station. Went to the local one - which was closed. Went to the PD, since they were nearby and was told to take the meds to the Los Gatos fire station. Went there and was told that I had to give them to a pharmacy. ?!? Specifically some weird place over on Moorpark. Got there and -no- they couldn't touch them BUT that I was to put the meds in a mailbox that was painted white over in a corner of the building's lobby.

...and I wondered why people flushed their meds. Well, now I know.

Comments

[howeird]

You mean what we flush is not routed to a sewage treatment plant? I would be mightily surprised to find out that what gets the crap out of our water does not also handle the meds. Documentation would be most welcome here.

[threeoutside.livejournal.com]

It does go to the sewage treatment plants, but those do not "handle" the meds. Here's a starting place on the EPA's web site:

http://water.epa.gov/scitech/swguidance/ppcp/index.cfm

enjoy!

[howeird]

They are talking about trace amounts, and they are not being specific about where in the country they are finding them.
http://water.epa.gov/scitech/swguidance/ppcp/upload/ppcpflyer.pdf
has an amusing suggestion for disposing of medicine which would have saved our heroine a lot of hassles.

[threeoutside.livejournal.com]

That is true, but keep in mind some of what's ending up in the water is only *needed* in trace amounts to cause biochemical reactions. If you've heard of the frogs with limb deformities and extra limbs, and fish that should be male but have female organs, they're thinking this is where those abberancies are coming from. Also, I *think* there has been some Scandinavian research tying pharma-sourced hormones in the water supply with a population-wide lowering of sperm counts in human males. Do we *really* want to continue with the attitude that "well, it's really so little, we don't have to worry about it yet." Oh yes? So when DO you want to worry about it? When it's too late for millions?