PULSE of NY Urges Consumers to Toss Old Medication

Patient Safety Awareness Week: March 7-13, 2010

Time to throw out your old medication. That’s the message from PULSE of NY, a grassroots organization that helped launched national Patient Safety Awareness Week.

"If you’re finished using those pills or if the expiration date on the bottle is history, toss them," said Ilene Corina, President of PULSE of NY. "No expiration date? Can’t remember when you bought them? Throw them away."

Disposing of leftover and old medications is not just a safe practice it could help curb the scourge of heroin on Long Island. The New York suburb has seen an alarming rise in the numbers of heroin-related deaths, overdoses, arrests and rehabilitation admissions.

Many teens raid their parent’s medicine cabinet and sell painkillers for $30 each, then buy heroin for $7. "Kids understand those pills are worth their weight in gold," said Jeffrey Reynolds, executive director of the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence and member of the PULSE of NY Patient Safety Advisory Council. "If you have adolescents in the house, lock up any highly-addictive painkillers."

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), more than 2.2 million youth in the United States aged 12 to 17 used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons in the past year. Many of those drugs are considered to be the doorway to heroin.

Dispose Safely

• Don’t flush. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that sewage treatment plants
   cannot clean all medicines out of the water, posing a danger to fish and wildlife.
• Crush solid medications or dissolve them in water, then mix them in kitty litter or other household waste.
    Place the mix in a sealed plastic bag before tossing it.
• Remove and destroy all identifying personal information from medication’s prescription label.
• Take your unused medication to Nassau and Suffolk County collection programs.

To learn more about medication safety visit www.consumermedsafety.org.

For more information visit www.pulseofny.org. To learn more about Patient Safety Awareness Week visit www.npsf.org

PULSE of NY is a nonprofit 501 (c) 3 organization dedicated to raising awareness about patient safety and reducing medical errors through advocacy, education, and support. We work to empower the public to make informed decisions, increase effective communication and respect between healthcare providers and the public, and create community partnerships that will foster and ultimately lead to safer healthcare environments. To learn about PULSE of NY go to www.pulseofny.org or visit www.pulseamerica.org to see if there is a PULSE near you.