Unused and expired medications in home medicine cabinets can potentially end up in the wrong hands and lead to accidental poisonings. In fact, medicines in the home are a leading cause of accidental poisonings in the U.S. And, simply throwing these substances in the trash or flushing them down drain can result in harm to the environment.
That’s why Parkland Health & Hospital System, the North Texas Poison Center at Parkland and local law enforcement agencies are joining together to take part in National Prescription Drug Take Back Day with a free event open to the public from 10 am – 2 p.m., Saturday April 30 at three Parkland locations:
- Garland Health Center, 802 Hopkins Road, Garland, 75040
- Hatcher Station Health Center, 4600 Scyene Road, Dallas, 75210
- Simmons Ambulatory Surgery Center, 4900 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas 75235
“This is a great opportunity for Dallas County residents to properly dispose of expired or unused medications,” said Miranda Skaaning, Parkland Sustainability Coordinator. “It also helps to raise awareness of the potential for abuse of prescription medicines.”
Among the reasons to get rid of unused and expired medications are:
- Unwanted medications can be tempting to children and pets and can result in unintentional poisonings.
- Expired medications are often ineffective because they have been kept past their expiration date or improperly stored.
- Unused medications can make your home a target of theft by drug abusers. In addition to the unintentional poisoning danger of unused and expired medications to individuals, there’s also an environmental issue.
Skaaning said that flushing drugs down a drain can result in harm to the environment. “Contaminants from the prescription drugs can leach into the soil and water and affect the health of not only humans, but other species, which can then impact people,” Skaaning said. She emphasized that during the event individuals can drive into the parking lot and hand the medications to a law enforcement officer, no questions asked. No intravenous materials, such as solutions or syringes, will be accepted at the event.
For more information about the proper way to dispose of prescription and over-the-counter medication, contact the poison experts at the North Texas Poison Center at Parkland at 1-800-222-1222.
