To help prevent any risks to people and pets at home, a list of 17 such medicines have been prepared by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).
A guidance document prepared by CDSCO on discarding unused and expired medicines showed that there are a small number of medicines that could be especially harmful and, in some cases, fatal with just one dose, if used by someone other than for whom it was prescribed.
“The potentially dangerous medicines should be flushed,” said a person in the know.
For other drugs that are unused or have expired, the drug regulator asked them to be collected by launching ‘drug take back’ programmes.
Initially, state drugs control departments and concerned chemists and druggists’ associations may jointly launch ‘Drug take back’ site or at designated sites, where people can drop expired or unused drugs, which can be disposed of by such associations, the document said.”Unscientific disposal of unused or expired drugs is considered as one of the primary reasons for environmental pollution. Used antibiotics which are often disposed of carelessly seeps into soil and water bodies, eventually affecting human life,” it further said.CDSCO’s move follows a letter from researchers, referring an article based on a study aimed at assessing the extent of exposure of active pharmaceutical compounds (APCs) in the hydrologic cycle in and around New Delhi. “The study stated the role of ecological exposure due to the disposal of unused and expired pharmaceutical compounds into landfills and indicated that un-segregated drug disposal could be a reason for the emergence of drug resistance with special reference to antibiotics,” the document further said.
