Demystify science | Where are outdated drugs go?

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They are sent to incinerators for hazardous waste, replied Alain Renard, Quebec manager of the Association for the recovery of health products (ARPS), funded by pharmaceutical companies.

This program was launched only last year in Quebec, while it has been in British Columbia and since 2013 in Ontario since 2007. Despite everything, 74 % of Quebecers know that you have to bring out expired drugs to the pharmacy, rather than throwing them into the garbage or in the toilet. This proportion is 59 % in Ontario.

“There is a greater problem with inhalers, prescription drugs and natural products,” emphasizes Mr. Renard. Fewer people bring them back to the pharmacy when they are outdated. On the other hand, good news, the biggest drug users, the elderly, are more aware of the right way of getting rid of drugs.

Before the establishment of the ARPS in Quebec, the drugs returned by customers were securely destroyed by pharmacies or by the groups of pharmacists with their other medical waste, such as expired drugs and preparation residues, explains Hugues Mousseau, director general of the association of banners and chains of pharmacies of Quebec (ABCPQ).

There was already a drug collection network in veterinary clinics, says Mr. Renard. The codes of ethics of the order of pharmacists and the order of veterinary doctors indicate that they must accept consumer returns, he notes.

The new ARPS program includes the collection of cutting syringes and medical objects.

ARPS finances the network for the collection of expired drugs and concludes contracts with biomedical waste elimination firms.

The next step is to improve the destruction of drugs, for example by recovering the heat of incineration, says Alain Renard. The public awareness efforts to return expired drugs to pharmacy are also evolving.

According to a 2014 report from the National Institute of Public Health (INSPQ), 43 % of Quebecers then had expired drugs at home, which 16 % threw in the trash and 2 %, in the toilet.

Treatment

It is necessary to reduce the amount of drugs that are found in garbage or wastewater because their environment is difficult. “Traditional water treatment methods, coagulation, decantation and filtration, do not work very well to eliminate pharmaceutical products,” says Mathieu Lapointe, civil engineer at the Higher Technology School.

To properly eliminate wastewater drugs, an expensive technology must be used, an expensive technology that is in the process of being integrated into the treatment of water in Montreal. But that doesn’t work well for all medicines, according to Mr. Lapointe. For example, ibuprofen (Advil) seems to resist ozonation.

Drugs that are found in the environment can affect wildlife. For example, an Ontarian study published in 2017 in the journal Scientific Reports concluded that the fish exposed to antidepressants were more aggressive and protect themselves less from their predators.

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