Old prescriptions? Leftover pills? Keep everyone safe. Tillamook County Solid Waste is sponsoring a Drug Take Back event at the Tillamook County Fairgrounds on Saturday Oct. 27th from 10 am to 2 pm. Medication “drop box” and drop off locations in Tillamook County are at Rinehart Pharmacy in Wheeler, Rockaway Beach Police department, Tillamook City Police and Tillamook County Sheriff’s Office during the open hours.
Safe Disposal – Protect our Community. Protect our Children. Protect Our Water. Protect Our Environment.
Flushing or dumping prescription medication down a drain is not a good way to dispose of your meds. Minor amounts of medication can enter the environment, contaminate drinking water, and affect people and wildlife. Help protect Oregon’s most precious resources by taking your meds back to secure collection boxes.
Find the collection box nearest you.
Protect our drinking water
Pharmaceutical residues can affect people. Traces of medication have been detected in the drinking water of 24 major metropolitan areas across the country serving 46 million people.
Protect our lakes and rivers
Another study showed that 80 percent of the sampled streams in the U.S. contain small amounts of prescription and over the counter medicines, personal care products, and other chemicals. Sewage treatment systems cannot remove all of these medications from water that are released into lakes, rivers or oceans. As a result, fish and other aquatic life have shown adverse effects from medicines in the water. And small amounts of medicine have been found in our drinking water.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and American Water Works Association (AWWA) both agree take-back programs are the best option for disposing of medications.
Sources
The Associated Press. (2018). Pharmaceuticals found in drinking water.
United States Geological Survey. (2018). Wastewater contaminants in U.S. streams.