Silent killer: The truth about discarded medicine wastes

Have you ever wondered what happens if medicine wastes are discarded unsafely?

Here’s the true story:

Discarded medicines are considered clinical waste as they may contain substances that are toxic, harmful, carcinogenic, mutagenic or teratogenic.
Clinical waste cannot be mixed with non-clinical waste, disposed into landfills or flushed into the toilet in order to safeguard public health and prevent environmental pollution. It must be managed in an appropriate waste disposal facility.

So how do we do that?

Well, incineration is used as a major technique for disposing of clinical waste (about 59-60%) worldwide, autoclaving (37-20%), and other treatments (4-5%) such as microwaving, plasma pyrolysis and the least safe method, landfilling.

Truth be told, incineration is an effective engineered process that uses high-temperature dry oxidation between 900˚C and 1200˚C to eradicate the wastes and convert them into ash, heat and gasses products. It is usually equipped with air pollution control equipment such as air scrubbers to ensure emission compliance under the Environmental Quality (Clean Air) Regulations 2014.

However, if the treatment facilities are not appropriately constructed, designed and operated, they can be one of the major sources of toxic substances in the air. These pollutants may have undesirable environmental impacts on human and animal health, such as liver failure and cancer.