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This Saturday, September 25, World Pharmacists Day was celebrated. From these pages today I want to congratulate my colleagues and, taking advantage of the occasion, talk about the risks of the famous domestic medicine cabinet. And there are those who treasure in their home more assorted medicine cabinets than the stores of many pharmacies. On the one hand, we have the authentic 'Scrooge uncles' of paracetamol and, on the other,
those who confuse the Sigre Point with the clean point and leave objects and belongings to their fate in pharmacies that nobody would believe
.
I don't know which of the two species is more dangerous.
Joking aside, the goal is to ensure the rational use of the drug, but also environmental safety and sustainability.
It is essential to become aware of how to manage this waste because our planet in general, and our fish in particular, are already suffering from it.
Surprise: The best place to store the medicine cabinet is not the bathroom or the kitchen
Although in many homes the bathroom and kitchen are their natural habitat, this is a mistake because these are precisely the rooms in which there are
more changes in temperature and humidity
.
The medicine cabinet should be in a cool, dry place and protected from light so that the properties of the drugs are not altered.
It is important that it is out of the reach of children ... and without a key!
Yes, the key is not necessary.
Then you get lost and when
you get a bad job
or cut your finger with the knife, everything is in a hurry.
Fish can end up drinking birth control
Medicines fall within the "emerging organic pollutants". The translation is that they
can cause environmental and health risks
if they end up in love and company with household garbage or are happily dumped down the drain. It is common that when analyzing the water, analgesic, antimicrobial, antidepressant, contraceptive or antiparasitic residues are found. And this has consequences that can be surprising. For example, if male fish or amphibians are exposed to low concentrations of the main active ingredient in the contraceptive pill, ethinyl estradiol, they can undergo a feminization process due to the effects on the endocrine system.It is not necessary to study biology to intuit that such a change could affect the capacity of the
little fish
to reproduce.
It is happening.
Sigre Point: the importance of recycling
Sigre stands for Integrated Container Collection and Management System.
Thanks to pharmacies, it is a system that is very efficient because the same distributors who bring medicines to the pharmacy every day can take advantage of the return trip to return this waste.
This is called a
reverse logistics system and it saves the planet no more and no less than 1,400 tons of CO2
every year.
Paradox: medicines are recycled "whole", not in parts
Although recycling the box or leaflet in the home paper container seems like the most logical thing to do, it is not actually the case. Cardboard boxes and medicine containers, whether they have traces of the drug or are empty, should not be thrown away inside the home. Neither to the blue container the paper elements, nor to the yellow the parts that are made of plastic, nor to the green if it is, for example, glass syrups. Why else is it what the body asks of us? First of all, because
all the containers and elements may contain traces of the medicine.
that have been attached.
And, secondly, because in the Sigre Point the medicines are separated for recycling depending on whether they are of one type or another.
The boxes and leaflets are used to identify the different drugs and give them the correct recycling treatment.
Identifying a red capsule that is 'loose' is not the same as if it travels inside its metamizole container.
What we CAN recycle at Punto Sigre
We can (and must) take expired medicines to Sigre Point, medicines that we no longer need because they were left over (be careful, because for example with antibiotics we have to finish the guideline), medicine boxes and empty or leftover containers.
In any case, if there are doubts, all the medicine packages marketed in Spain through pharmacy offices carry the Sigre Symbol.
What we can NOT recycle at the Sigre Point
And this is where the confusion comes in.
Syringes with needles (only insulin pens, with caps), nor thermometers, batteries or X-rays (you must leave them in the collection system or authorized clean points), nor gauze and dressings (they go to the trash organic), prosthetics (such as dentures), or chemicals.
Anecdotes from Punto Sigre: panties, frozen peas and even mobile phones with a charger
After asking several colleagues what is the strangest thing they had found in their Sigre Point, the first thing they told me is the importance of clarifying their name: apparently there are people who enter the pharmacy asking for the "Point G". Once the name has been clarified, in the universe of fantastic elements found in the Sigre Point by pharmacists,
reality surpasses fiction
: half-eaten sandwiches, 'old lady' panties, soup spoons, headphones, phones with charger, remote controls. distance, cassette tapes with Marisol's greatest hits, moth-proof hangers, bird feed, a bag of frozen peas that had been applied to a swollen eye (it must be for therapeutic use) and my favorite: a container for a urine sample. .. with sample included.
The anecdotes are nice, but the problem is real: we
need more public awareness about the recycling of medicines
.
And of course we also need some extra applause for the pharmacists and all those who run the Sigre Point.
Patience, comrades!
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