Proposed statewide medicine take-back bill would protect people and environment

Successful pilot take-back project helps frame state legislation

Legislation recently introduced in Olympia would establish a statewide program that could result in the collection and safe disposal of an estimated 66,000 pounds of expired and unwanted medicine each year across Washington.

The proposed "Secure Medicine Return" bill (House Bill 3064) would give residents a free and convenient alternative to improper disposal of unwanted medicines down the drain or in the garbage. Drug companies would establish and pay for the program.

"Throwing prescription medicines in the garbage, or leaving them in the cabinet always carries the risk that they will get into the wrong hands, which could lead to drug abuse, poisoning, or even death, while flushing them is bad for the environment," said State Rep. Dawn Morrell (D-Puyallup), the bill's primary sponsor and a certified critical care Registered Nurse.

"Establishing a statewide medicine return program safeguards people and our ecology," said Morrell, who is Vice Chair of the House of Representatives' Health Care Committee.

A public hearing on the proposed legislation is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 23 at 6 p.m. in House Hearing Room A of the John L. O'Brien Building on the state capitol campus in Olympia.

A 2005 survey of King County residents showed that 67 percent have medicines in their homes they do not expect to use in the next six months. Nearly three quarters of those polled said they would return their unused medications if it were convenient.

Just how interested residents are in a convenient return program is being shown in a first-in-the-nation medicine take-back pilot project now running at all 25 Group Health Cooperative pharmacies in six counties across the state. Some Bartell Drug stores will participate in the pilot project before it ends this October.

Collected drugs are stored in a secure container and sent to a high-temperature incinerator for disposal. To date, more than 4,000 pounds of drugs have been collected.

"We have demonstrated beyond a doubt that it's possible to establish a simple, secure and effective medicine take-back program, with help from great partners such as Group Health and Bartell Drugs," said Dave Galvin, a program manager for the Local Hazardous Waste Management Program in King County, which is helping to run the pilot project.

The pilot was funded in part through two King County-sponsored grants to the Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Center totaling $100,000, and is scheduled to end in October.

The proposed legislation would require drug companies to pay for and implement take back programs for the collection and disposal of unwanted drugs from residential sources by Jan. 1, 2010.

This "producer responsibility" approach has been successfully used in other regions, including British Columbia, where drug companies have been operating the program for over 10 years. And a producer-paid recycling program for computers and TVs is scheduled to begin throughout Washington state in 2009.

"This bill gives drug companies a great opportunity to step forward as good corporate citizens," said Suellen Mele, Program Director for Washington Citizens for Resource Conservation and one of the bill's proponents. "By taking responsibility for the disposal of their products, these companies will provide good customer service to Washington residents and reduce the amount of unwanted medicines ending up in our waterways."

Disposal down the drain leads either to a municipal sanitary sewer or a septic tank. These systems do not treat the pharmaceuticals and the medicines usually end up in streams or groundwater, potentially impacting aquatic organisms. In fact, a study by the United States Geological Survey showed pharmaceutical compounds in 80 percent of the streams surveyed across the country.

According to a Department of Health study, accidental poisonings have increased by 345 percent since 1990; 90 percent of those poisonings are from pharmaceuticals. In addition, over half of the people using prescription drugs for nonmedical reasons obtained them from a friend or relative for free, according to the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

More information on the proposed legislation is available at http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2007-08/Pdf/Bills/House%20Bills/3064.pdf. For a bill summary, go to: www.wastenotwashington.org/HB3064summary.pdf.