Thursday, January 29, 2009
Don't drink the water
ACP Internist's latest cover article describes the potential environmental impact of disposing of drugs down the drain and into the water supply. I ran into this problem after getting a bad series of eye, ear and sinus infections over the holidays.
I worked my way through all the antibiotics as prescribed, but those aren't the problem anyway, said Christian Daughton, PhD, Chief of the Environmental Chemistry Branch at the EPA's National Exposure Research Laboratory in Las Vegas. He told ACP Internist that antibiotics in drinking water occur only at parts-per-trillion range, which is probably a moot concern for creating bacterial resistance.
My main problem is all that leftover pseudoephedrine. I didn't mix well with the pills and didn't finish them. And, while I was looking through my medicine cabinet to throw them out, I found a family's worth of expired prescriptions and over-the-counter meds so old that I can't even remember buying them. If I dispose of them improperly, I'm making sure my neighbors don't get headaches, fevers, sore throats, cramps, coughs, stuffiness, gas, bloating or warts.
I'm supposed to mix it all with kitty litter, but I don't have a cat. If I did, I'd probably need more pseudoephedrine. I drink coffee and thought I'd found a conscience-free way of throwing them out with used grounds, but Dr. Daughton said, "The recommendation to mix drugs with kitty litter or coffee is not without controversy."
To top it all off, only one of the pill bottles is recyclable in my borough. It's not just me getting sick, it's the planet.
Labels: drugs, environment, infectious disease
posted by Ryan DuBosar at
11:35 AM
ACP Internist hosted Grand Rounds on June 16, wrapping up the best of the medical blogosphere. Click here for the complete wrap-up.
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Blog log
American Journal of Medicine
Also known as the Green Journal, the American Journal of Medicine publishes original clinical articles of interest to physicians in internal medicine and its subspecialities, both in academia and community-based practice.
Clinical Correlations
A collaborative medical blog started by Neil Shapiro, ACP Member, associate program director at New York University Medical Center's internal medicine residency program. Faculty, residents and students contribute case studies, mystery quizzes, news, commentary and more.
db's Medical Rants
Robert M. Centor, FACP, contributes short essays contemplating medicine and the health care system.
Everything Health
EverythingHealth is designed to address the rapid changes in science, medicine, health and healing in the 21st Century.
Getting Better with Dr. Val
Getting Better is the continuation of Dr. Val Jones' previous blog at Revolution Health. It is devoted to helping people understand health issues from a balanced, scientifically sound perspective.
HealthHombre
A roundup of health policy news drawn from a database of hundreds of Web sites.
Interact MD
Michael Benjamin, ACP member, doesn't accept industry money so he can create an independent, clinician-reviewed space on the Internet for physicians to report and comment on the medical news of the day.
Kevin, MD
The alter ego of Kevin Pho, ACP Member, is the closest thing to royalty in the medical blog world.
LSUHSC-S Medical Library Evidence Alert
Major guidelines, systematic reviews, meta-analyses and/or major reviews by national and international organizations.
PLoS Blog
The Public Library of Science's open access materials include a blog.
White Coat Rants
One of the most popular anonymous blogs written by a doctor.
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