'Just say no' to flushing unused medications

You can take the unused Vicodin from your last surgery, the muscle relaxers the doctor doled out when your back was bad, the birth control pills you no longer need and flush them down the toilet -- if you dare.

There is no law to stop you, no agency regulating where they should go, no widely accepted alternative beyond the household hazardous waste dump at the Sonoma County Central Disposal Site.

But an emerging arena of research and public policy -- prompted largely by a landmark 2002 federal study that found pharmaceuticals in waterways across the country -- suggests those medicines you blithely flush away today likely will come back to haunt you and everyone else.

A growing body of research indicates that discarded hormones and drugs that mimic the effects of hormones are interfering with reproduction in fish. Concerns have been raised about the potential impact of using treated wastewater -- which in most forms doesn't filter out drugs -- to irrigate crops.

In case common sense doesn't already dictate it, experts are telling us "Just say no" to flushing. And it's getting harder to make excuses.

A pilot project providing seven drop-off points for unused medicines in Sonoma and Guerneville becomes operational Saturday. A related public outreach campaign is planned for the weeks ahead, Sonoma County Water Agency officials said Thursday during a daylong symposium on the issue in Rohnert Park.

Also, the city of Santa Rosa is developing plans for "take-back" events around the county and a public education program, under an order from the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, Assistant Executive Officer Luis Rivera said.

And a bill signed into state law last month requires California's Integrated Waste Management Board to develop model programs for safe medicine disposal through an expanded grant program next year.

Even the Environmental Protection Agency -- where regulatory change is "ponderous, glacial at times," said a representative from the San Francisco Office -- is promoting new rule-making for pharmaceutical disposal.

"Nationwide, we have to find a way to collect and safely dispose of these unused medications," physician-turned-doctoral candidate Ilene Ruhoy told about 100 people gathered for the event.

Everything from antibiotics to hormone replacement pills to beta blockers and sleeping aids have turned up in public waterways, and that's just because scientists were testing for it, a representative from the Environmental Protection Agency's San Francisco office said.

"If we're looking for it, we tend to find it," said Luisa Valiela, who works for the EPA's water division.

It's still uncertain what portion of the "chemical sea" many speakers referred to is made up of disposed pharmaceuticals or precisely what risks they present.

It's clear, however, that Americans accumulate large quantities of unused medications and that much of it for decades has been sent down the toilet or drain. Most wastewater treatment leaves pharmaceutical compounds untouched, and neither government nor industry entities have so far done much about it, experts said.

Advocates said there are programs in place or in development in Marin County, San Mateo County and elsewhere in the Bay Area that allow consumers to drop off or mail back unused medications for proper disposal. San Mateo County has special bins at law enforcement stations.

That system is on track to collect about 3,000 pounds of medications this year, San Mateo County legislative aide Bill Chiang said.

"The program," he said, "is almost too simple."

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat

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Seven locations in Sonoma, Guerneville will take unused pills / B3