Dear Mary, Thanks for putting such an interesting question, that too for your friend in an industry. The drugs are considered as part of hazardous waste, which needs to be addressed as per the prescribed Rules prevailing in a particular country. For such disposal of such drugs (probably expired) need to be incinerated and then the ash so produced has to be disposed off in a Secured Hazardous Waste Landfill Site. However, if such drugs are being dumped down in the drains, if possible these may be removed from the drains by diverting water or by any other method and then treated as per the secured Hazardous Waste Management. In case it is not possible for removal, the chemical composition has to be assessed for taking further corrective measures and the experts may be involved in this process as this may lead to long lasting effects on the human health & environment. But in any case further dumping in the drains has to be stopped immediately. I am further sure that the valuable comments from experts in this Group shall be able to tackle this issue. With kind regards, Dr. dpsingh dpshimla@gmail.com
Published by Dr. Davinderpal Singh Bhatia, Project Manager, European Union Project
Dear Mary,
Thanks for putting such an interesting question, that too for your friend in an industry.
The drugs are considered as part of hazardous waste, which needs to be addressed as per the prescribed Rules prevailing in a particular country. For such disposal of such drugs (probably expired) need to be incinerated and then the ash so produced has to be disposed off in a Secured Hazardous Waste Landfill Site.
However, if such drugs are being dumped down in the drains, if possible these may be removed from the drains by diverting water or by any other method and then treated as per the secured Hazardous Waste Management.
In case it is not possible for removal, the chemical composition has to be assessed for taking further corrective measures and the experts may be involved in this process as this may lead to long lasting effects on the human health & environment. But in any case further dumping in the drains has to be stopped immediately.
I am further sure that the valuable comments from experts in this Group shall be able to tackle this issue.
With kind regards,
Dr. dpsingh
1 Comment
I have been concerned about this problem. I am seeing this in Hog lagoons where Antibiotics are fed to Hogs and their urine contains the residue going into the lagoons and causing problems (weakening or killing) the Microbes we put in to chew up the sludge. So, I assure you that you cannot stop these drugs from getting into the Waste water. There is another way, for example, we can now produce strains of Microbes which can break up PCBs (PolyChlorinated Biphenols) we do not eliminate them but we can break them up so that they are no longer a carcinogen. The Microbes break up the PolyChlorinated chain. We have only touch the surface of the strains or species of Microbes out there but I am very confident we can find some that will break up these Pharmaceuticals.
Published by Joseph Massidda, Partner at Cellulose Solutions