There’s more evidence that small amounts of pharmaceuticals are finding their way into the environment and potentially causing harm. So, some communities are collecting unused drugs and destroying them. Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Transcript
There’s more evidence that small amounts of pharmaceuticals are finding their way into
the environment and potentially causing harm . So, some communities are collecting
unused drugs and destroying them. Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Sewage treatment plants can’t screen out all the medicines that either pass through the
body, or if unused, are flushed down the drain. Some studies have shown the
pharmaceuticals affect fish, or end up in fertilizer that’s put on lawns and gardens. So
some cities have started pharmaceutical collection days. Jean Zyla brought a grocery
bag full of old medicine to a site in Milwaukee:
“I believe very strongly in the environment, and preserving it, and
I wanna protect the citizens and the animal population and everything. I believe very
strongly in that!”
Pharmacists were on hand to examine the medicines and make sure that controlled
substances were taken in by police. The rest of the drugs are to go to an incinerator in
Texas.
For the Environment Report, I’m Chuck Quirmbach