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Don’t give your prescription medicine a whirly down the toilet. Doing this, feeds the waterways with synthetic chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, etc. and just disrupts the environment and nature. Fish aren’t meant to swim in medicine filled waterways and city water filtration systems can’t filter it all out of our drinking water… which means we drink it too! It’s a fact that hormones and antibiotics are showing up in the water when they do they’re magic tests but fish are being born asexual and deformed so even with no water test, I think it’s clear we have a problem.

My eyes were first opened to this problem at a local health fair where I was presenting on green cleaning products and solutions. A sweet nurse aid approached me and said she was very concerned about our water. I thought she was talking about bottled water but then she said she worked for a nursing home and everyday she flushes hundreds of pills down the toilet. She whispered, “That just can’t be safe for us.” My reaction was, “Heck no it isn’t safe!” That’s when the digging began and more eye-popping information was exposed. “According to the Associated Press, one study estimated our nation’s nursing homes alone throw away $73 million to $378 million worth of antibiotics, hormones and other medications each year.” Besides the fact that the pharmaceutical companies are getting way to rich and too many individuals are on too many pills the next big issue is how to stop the flushing of these wasted pills (why they are wasted I’m not sure).

When our water is gone, it’s gone. When it’s polluted with chemicals, hormones and antibiotics, it can’t be fixed easily. The U.S. Geological Service a few years back did a study and found narcotics in the water. Yeah, that’s healthy. So, do we just toss the pills in the garbage? Well, if you do this they sit in the landfills where animals can eat them and find them. That isn’t a good solution either.

Probably the best solution is to limit prescription medicine all together and start using preventative medicine and do yourself some good with natural supplements. There’s a new study out called the Land Mark Study that shows how good preventive care is and how many that aren’t using supplements are on lots of prescription medicine. If you use prescription medicine you should finish it and take it as prescribed verses flushing or throwing it out.

The best thing you can do with unused prescriptions or even over the counter medicine, is to crush the pills, soak them in water and put them in used coffee grounds or kitty litter. This allows for the chemicals and bad stuff to be absorbed. Then toss the kitty litter or coffee grounds in a sealed container. Easy for a family to do but how about a nursing home with millions of prescription pills a year or week, for that matter? That is going to take some legislation, talking to the nursing homes via grass root measures and rallying together to stop the prescription medicines from being flushed into our waterways!

Some counties offer hazardous waste disposal so it’s advisable to inquire with your local facilities and see if they offer a program or would consider offering a disposal method. The FDA has some recommendations for disposing of prescription medicine but I have yet to find  that this is regulated or mandated for hospitals or nursing homes. My undercover, “Nancy Drew” detective work of local facilities proved to me, there is no mandated method and a huge lack of education or concern. Now, do me a favor. Turn on your water and fills your child’s cup. Do you feel motivated to do something now?