Public urged to return old medicines to avoid accidental poisonings
Medicines Out Dispose Medicines Picture: Properly The Unused Of Date (dump) To Of Bring Public Unused Campaign Pharmacies Allows Pexels To The Or File Participating
People are being urged to bring unused or out-of-date medicines to their local pharmacies after figures showed that over two-thirds of accidental poisonings involve children in the home.
Cork Kerry Community Healthcare is asking the public to use a free service running for the next six weeks to dispose of medications safely in a bid to avoid accidental poisonings, intentional overdose, inappropriate sharing of medicines, and environmental damage.
The National Poisons Information Centre in Beaumont Hospital received over 11,500 enquiries involving poisoning in a single year. Of these, 67% involved children and adolescents, while 93% of poisonings took place in the home.
In its last annual figures, the National Suicide Research Foundation recorded 7,763 hospital presentations due to intentional overdose of medications, most commonly paracetamol.
Opioids and painkiller medications were also most commonly involved in some 3,715 deaths recorded by the National Drug-Related Deaths Index between 2008 and 2017.
Taking old or unused medications that were not directly prescribed can result in illness mistreatment, consumption of incorrect dosages of medications, misuse of antibiotics, antibiotic resistance, and unforeseen physical illness and side effects.
HSE pharmacist Louise Creed said medication could cause a “real hazard” in the home. She strongly urged people to take the opportunity to get rid of them.
“Clearing out your medicine cabinet is something that should be done on a regular basis,” she said.
Out-of-date medicines are often inappropriately disposed of by being dumped with other household waste, flushed down the toilet, or poured down the sink, which can seriously harm the environment when products end up in landfill, or permeate into our soil, food chain, and water supply.
The Dispose of Unused Medicines Properly (Dump) campaign allows the public to bring unused or out-of-date medicines to participating pharmacies to ensure they are disposed of properly.
In 2018, more than 280 bins, containing more than four tonnes of medicines, were safely disposed of.
The Dump campaign is running until Friday, April 22, with almost all pharmacies in Cork and Kerry taking part.