It seems that these days a home without several drugs in the medicine cabinet is a rarity. This is not surprising. The number of people suffering illnesses has been increasing. Besides, people believe in being prepared. So there would be medicines for minor health conditions such as colds and fever, for the treatment of bruises or wounds in case of accidents. There would be medications for existing ailments and there could be several of them. Sadly, many people are having a lot of health problems all the time. Life is becoming increasingly stressful. There could be medications for pains and headaches in there, medications to relieve stress, to induce sleep, etc?
If in your household some medicines are not all consumed, you have a good idea that this is true also for millions of others. You must also have a good idea where these unconsumed millions of medicines go, most likely flushed down the toilet as you yourself do with your unconsumed or expired medicines. You are doing better than others just throw them to the trash can.
If you think flushing unused and expired medicines is safe, you are unfortunately mistaken. When the medicines dissolve, the chemicals in the medicines get mixed with the water. The practice actually poses environmental concern. Throwing them in the trash can pose a more serious danger as they can contaminate the soil and ingested by animals.
The worse that people can do is to forget their unconsumed and expired drugs or leave them around where kids can find them. They pose risks to adults, too. Old people with eyesight issues can mistake them for their medicines and take them. They can end up in a hospital.
There is a proper way of disposing expired medicines. You can take them to your pharmacist. He’d know what to do with them. However, this could be very inconvenient. Its impractical to be running to him every time medicines in your expires or you are no longer using them. If the pharmacy is far from your residence, the temptation to just flush them down the toilet would be very hard to resist.
Fortunately you do not have to do any of those things. You get one of several medication disposal bags available in the market. Medication disposal bags break down the medicines, neutralizing content that poses dangers to human health. You have to be careful in choosing the brand though since the effectiveness of different brands is not the same. You must also make sure that you buy one that satisfies important requirements like those demanded by the DEA.
As already mentioned old medicines affect not only humans but also the environment. You would do well to consider this when you are deciding which brand to buy. There are brands that are made to protect both human and the environment. Finding then is a simple matter of reading product descriptions.
Concerned about what to do with the unconsumed and expired drugs in your house? You can easily and safely deal with them buying the best among the many medication disposal bags out there.