Vestara

Of the nearly 160,000 FDA National Drug Codes (NDC), 3,000 are considered hazardous materials. Considering that a typical hospital will annually waste and dispose one million drugs and containers, the task of determining if each drug is hazardous, identifying the type of hazardous material and selecting the proper means of disposal is overwhelming. Unfortunately, waste management systems in today's hospitals provide only a rough guide to waste disposal-the systems are outdated at best and ignored at worst. Even the most toxic pharmaceutical waste such as arsenic trioxide and epinephrine are poured down the drain or disposed of in ways that do not properly render them safe to the environment.

Some of these drugs are finding their way into our water table. The United States Geological Society Study of 1999-2000, reported in March 2002, that one or more of the chemicals studied, which included pharmaceuticals and several drug metabolites, were found in 80% of the stream water samples tested nationwide. Half of the streams and rivers contained seven or more of these chemicals. In addition, pharmaceuticals that either act as hormones or disrupt normal hormone activity may be responsible for the reported low sperm counts in men worldwide and the interruption of fetal and newborn development in certain wildlife species.

A five-month investigation completed by the Associated Press in March 2008 confirmed that a vast array of pharmaceutical drugs are present in the drinking water of 41 million Americans and in 24 major metropolitan areas. This report triggered increased awareness and scrutiny of pharmaceutical contaminants in the country’s water supply, including congressional hearings and state-level testing initiatives.

A second Associated Press investigation, reported in September 2008, found that hospitals and long-term care facilities are contributing to our nation’s contaminated drinking water by dumping 250 million pounds of drug waste annually.

Ways Pharmaceutical Waste Can Get In The Groundwater:

Inability of facilities to accurately and economically identify, classify and sort drug waste
Non-compliance with complex local, state and federal regulations
Improper disposal of drugs
Ineffectiveness of water treatment plants to remove drug waste
Landfills that leach into the ground water

A Vital Step in Managing Pharmaceutical Waste (pdf)
Drug Waste Management Issues and Solutions (pdf)
EcoRex - The Regulatory Compliant Solution