Del. Nurses Assoc. to hold 'medicine take-back day'

In response to new evidence that flushed medications are ending up in Delaware’s water supply, a group of Delaware nurses is sponsoring Sussex County’s first Medicine Take-Back Event on Oct. 14.

The one-day event, held at the Georgetown Fire Station from 8 a.m. to noon, will be a chance for community members to clean out their medicine cabinets and dispose of old pharmaceuticals without jeopardizing local water quality.

Nurses Healing Our Planet, an environmental task force of the Delaware Nurses Association, invites everyone in the community to bring in all unwanted prescriptions and over-the-counter medications, as well as vitamins, inhalers, drops, veterinary pills and liquid medications in their original containers.

All pharmaceuticals brought in will be disposed of in an environmentally safe manner.
New evidence shows that flushing is the wrong way to dispose of unwanted drugs. According to the Associated Press, some drugs “resist modern drinking water and wastewater treatment processes.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that no sewage treatment systems are specifically engineered to remove pharmaceuticals.

Leftover medicines cause thousands of accidental poisonings and deaths each year. When old drugs are flushed down the toilet, they can poison fish, animals, plants, and people. Protect yourself, your family, the community, and the environment by joining NHOP on Oct. 14 for one of the first pharmaceutical take-back events in the region.

For  more information, call Michelle Lauer 302-428-2117 or Sarah Carmody 302-998-3141.