By Brendan Rees
Checked you medicine cabinet lately?
Pharmacists are encouraging locals to return unwanted or expired medicines by returning them to the pharmacy.
It is estimated that there are millions of medicines sitting in Australian homes – either out-of-date or no longer needed.
These quantities of medicines pose a huge danger of accidental poisonings and medication mismanagement.
Cranbourne’s Blooms the Chemist pharmacist James Garamszegi said people should avoid stockpiling medicines.
“It is very important that medications be disposed of safely, so they can’t get in the wrong hands or contaminate the environment,” he said.
“As part of the Return of Unwanted Medicines (RUM) project, people can easily and safely return medications to their pharmacy, including Blooms the Chemist, Cranbourne and Casey.
“Customers should bring their medications that they wish to dispose of to the pharmacist or dispensary counter in a plastic bag and the pharmacist will safely dispose of the medications in the RUM bin for safe disposal.”
Sharps including needles, lancets and syringes were not part of the disposal project, Mr Garamszegi said.
New research published by the Australian Health Review has revealed that 75 per cent of people said they kept medicines in case they needed them in the future.
Other reasons included not wanting to waste money, not knowing how to dispose of them, intending to give them to family and friends, or forgetting the medicines were there.
The study showed in 2015, 5,580 children required hospitalisation due to medicine poisonings across Australia and 32,000 calls were made to Australian Poison Information Centres relating to children being unintentionally exposed to medicines.
“Last year alone, over 780,273kg of medicines were collected and safely disposed of by the RUM Project, preventing it from ending up in waterways or landfill,” said Toni Riley, Project Manager, RUM and community pharmacist.
