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Wellness Matters: Safe Drug Disposal by Jenny Hackel

W e used to believe that it was better to flush medicine you no longer needed down the toilet, to keep it from the reach of children and pets or being shared inappropriately with others. Yet, a 2002 study by the U.S. Geological Service found groundwater contaminated with 82 different prescription drugs owing to flushing of old medications or landfill runoff resulting from disposal of drugs in regular trash. In the 15 years since that study, prescription use has increased, while funding for environmental protection has decreased. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found antibiotics, hormones, and other drugs in both municipal water and rural groundwater systems that are potentially dangerous to the community’s health. Drug contaminants in the water—even in bottled or filtered water—include chemicals that lower blood pressure and heart rate, affect the brain and nervous system, and alter the reproductive hormones. While the average person thinks of antibiotics as drugs that make people well, when they are not

specifically tailored to cure a particular infection, they can alter the body’s natural defense mechanisms and make a person sick, allergic, or resistant to the drugs should an infection arise. Similarly, hormones that treat a deficiency in one person may cause cancer in another. The best advice is to talk with your health care provider about the safest way to treat your health conditions with the fewest number of drugs at the lowest doses, never share your prescriptions drugs with others, and always safely dispose of drugs no longer needed. The EPA details a safer disposal method on their website. Better yet, you can bring the drugs you no longer need to a drug takeback programcosponsoredby the EPAandMainepharmacy associations. The next collection on Chebeague will be Saturday August 19 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 pm. at the Public Safety Building . Last year, several trash bags full of unwanted prescriptions were kept out of Chebeague groundwater with this program, making our groundwater safer not only for humans but also for the entire ecosystem of the island.

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AUGUST 2017 CHEBEAGUE ISLAND COUNCIL CALENDAR