Dispose them safely at Lake Chelan Pharmacy
by Loni Rahm, LCN photo
Spring cleaning at my house recently included a purge of old medications and prescriptions. You know…the one or two pills that are leftovers from whatever illness prompted their arrival at your house in the first place. Environmental agencies would like to encourage you NOT to flush them down the toilet where they could end up in our drinking water or enter rivers and lakes.
The EPA warns that medicines may enter streams and rivers when poured down the drain or flushed down the toilet. In homes that use septic tanks, prescription and over-the-counter drugs flushed down the toilet can leach into the ground and seep into groundwater. In cities and towns where residences are connected to wastewater treatment plants, prescription and over-the-counter drugs poured down the sink or flushed down the toilet can pass through the treatment system and enter rivers and lakes. They may flow downstream to serve as sources for community drinking water supplies. Water treatment plants are generally not equipped to routinely remove medicines.
Lake Chelan Pharmacy provides an easy medication disposal option.
Simply bring expired or unwanted medication to their secure bin for proper disposal. In the photo above Melissa J. Giesinger, CPht, Pharmacy Technician at Lake Chelan Pharmacy, demonstrates the easy way to safely dispose of old medication.
Lake Chelan Pharmacy is located at 223 East Johnson, adjacent to the Lake Chelan Clinic. They are open Monday – Friday, 9 am. – 5 p.m.
