Well being and Human Companies (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is urging People to get rid of their prescription medicines correctly. He addressed the problem in a video posted on X, marking Nationwide Prescription Drug Take Again Day, which is April 26.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has arrange free, nameless drop-off websites throughout the nation the place People can go away their unused prescription medications.
U.S. Well being and Human Companies (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. speaks throughout a press convention saying of the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration’s (FDA) intent to section out using petroleum-based artificial dyes within the nation’s meals provide, on the Division of Well being and Human Companies in Washington, D.C., April 22, 2025. (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)
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Whereas some might imagine that flushing prescriptions down the bathroom is a secure various to throwing them away and might forestall folks from unintentionally ingesting it, Kennedy warns that there are risks to that too. The HHS chief defined that when flushed, the medicines will go into the water system, probably exposing anybody who drinks the water to these substances.
“We don’t totally know the consequences of low ranges of contraception hormones or antibiotics or chemotherapy brokers and so forth, within the water, but it surely’s not good,” Kennedy mentioned within the video.
A picture of HHS Secretary nominee RFK Jr. juxtaposed subsequent to a bottle of drugs made by drug producers. (iStock/Getty )
Nevertheless, there are some medicines which are secure to flush. In response to the FDA’s “Flush Checklist,” there are a number of opioid medicines which are secure to flush, together with Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet. Nevertheless, the FDA warns that medicine that don’t seem on its Flush Checklist shouldn’t be flushed down the bathroom.
(PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP through Getty Photos)
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The DEA sees Nationwide Prescription Drug Take Again Day as greater than a approach for People to filter out undesirable or unused medicine. On its website promoting the take again day, the DEA frames it as a strategy to forestall “medicine misuse and opioid dependancy from ever beginning.”
Throughout its most up-to-date take again day in October 2024, the DEA collected 629,953 kilos, or 314 tons, of medicine throughout 4,644 assortment websites.
For many who miss Nationwide Prescription Drug Take Again Day, there are drug take-back websites open year-round. The FDA offers directions on how one can safely dispose of medicines, in addition to needles and syringes safely.