The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives has cleared for the President’s signature The Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act (pdf), legislation backed by the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) that could improve and encourage voluntary prescription drug disposal programs.

The legislation authorizes the U.S. Attorney General to issue new regulations (under the Controlled Substances Act) that could allow community pharmacies offering disposal programs to accept controlled substances, which presently can only be turned in to law enforcement officials. According to the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, for young people ages 12-17, prescription drugs have become the second most abused illegal drug (behind marijuana) with controlled substances playing a major role.

Passing the legislation took years of effort, especially on the part of U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) and U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), Jim Moran (D-Va.), Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Bart Stupak (D-Mich.). NCPA supported lawmakers throughout the process by providing the community pharmacists’ perspective.

“Prescription drug abuse is at epic proportions in many parts of the country and community pharmacists are uniquely positioned to help Americans properly dispose of their expired and unused prescription drugs,” said Douglas Hoey, RPh, NCP acting executive vice president and CEO. “We commend members of Congress from both parties for coming together to approve this important legislation.

“Just this past weekend, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration held a national ‘Take-Back’ Day, which had the support of NCPA,” Hoey added. “We commend the DEA for its efforts, but believe consumers need continued, ongoing access to convenient disposal locations. Programs like Dispose My Meds also offer another avenue to allow community pharmacists to promote proper adherence to the patient’s prescription medication regimen.”

Leftover prescription drugs from family medicine cabinets create the potential for misuse or accidental ingestion by children or pets. In addition, traces of prescription drugs have been found in America’s drinking water when they were discarded in environmentally unfriendly ways.

Medical waste disposal is an important part of any hospital or health facility’s procedures. It is extremely important that they put the trash in red bags. These bags are specifically made to hold contaminated medical waste that is considered a bio-hazard. Blood, urine and other bodily secretions collected should be disposed of in these red-bags. If you are disposing large volumes of liquid, see your administration for particular guidelines, state and federal laws continually change. Scalpels, sharps, and needles, as well as broken lab glass and blades also should be disposed properly. Generally, they are to be placed in specially made sharps containers that have medical waste warning labels on them.

Medical waste disposal is a serious threat to our environment and health, it is a federal offense to dispose of improperly. Medical Waste Services is licensed and insured to handle all bio-hazard medical waste. We ensure that all the medical waste is disinfected sufficiently with heat in an autoclave. Microwaves are then used to treat the waste and a HEPA air filter is used to reduce odors to nonexistence. The overall volume is reduced by 80% and is non-infectious by the end of the process. When hiring Medical Waste Services you don’t have to worry about your medical waste management – just leave it to us.

To learn more or to receive a quote please contact us today at 1-877-REDBAG.

With all the changes in laws over the past few years, how do you stay on top of everything to make sure you are compliant? Medical Waste Services strives to provide our clients with the most up to date information and regulations within the medical waste and document destruction industries. They are very regulated and penalties could be extremely severe.

After medical wastes were found among other wastes washing up on several East Coast beaches, concern over the potential health hazards prompted Congress to enact the Medical Waste Tracking Act (MWTA) in 1988. The Act required EPA to create a two-year Medical Waste Demonstration Program. For the purposes of this two-year program the MWTA:

• Defined medical waste and those wastes to be regulated;
• Established a cradle to grave tracking system utilizing a generator initiated tracking form;
• Required management standards for segregation, packaging, labeling and marking, and storage of the waste; and
• Established record keeping requirements and penalties that could be imposed for mismanagement.