The water we drink comes from lakes, streams, rivers and underground aquifers. Thus, it’s very important that everyone do their part to reduce the pollution entering waterways that carry our drinking water. This is particularly important with respect to disposal of prescription and over-the-counter medications.

Most people throw out of their unused, unneeded or expired medicines by flushing or pouring them down the drain. Since wastewater treatment facilities aren’t designed to remove pharmaceuticals, the disposed compounds end up in our lakes and streams, and ultimately in our drinking water. Indeed, a 2002 U.S. Geological Survey identified a broad rand of chemicals, including antibiotics and non-prescription drugs, at low concentrations downstream from areas of intense urbanization and animal production [1].

Active pharmaceutical ingredients, from both prescription and over-the-counter medications, can enter the waterways by several different routes [2]:

1. bodily excretion of unmetabolized active pharmaceutical incredients
2. release from the skin during washing or bathing
3. disposal to sewage or trash of medications

To minimize environmental contamination resulting from disposal of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, most medications should not be flushed down the toilet or poured down the drain.

Follow these guidelines to dispose of drugs properly and safely [2]:

Don’t flush prescription drugs down the toilet or drain unless the label or accompanying patient information specifically instructs you to do so. For information on drugs that should be flushed, visit the FDA page on safe disposal of medicines.

To dispose of prescription drugs not labeled to be flushed, you may be able to take advantage of community drug take‐back programs or  household hazardous waste collection events, which collect drugs at a central location for proper disposal. Check with your pharmacy and/or call your local government’s household trash and recycling service and ask if a drug take‐back program is available in your community.

If a drug take‐back or collection program is not available in your area, follow these steps to ensure the proper and safe disposal of medicines:

1. Remove medication from its original container.
2. Mix the drugs with an undesirable substance, such as used coffee grounds.
   IMPORTANT: Don’t crush tablets, open capsules or add water to dissolve. These actions pose added risks for those in proximity and for the environment, since the extended release design of the drug is defeated, making its entire contents immediately bioavailable [3].
3. Hide the mixture in a disposable container with a lid, such as an empty margarine tub or a ziplock bag to prevent discovery and removal from the trash.
4. Remove all identifying personal information, including Rx number, on the empty medication container. Hint: conceal with black permanent marker.
5. Place the sealed container with the mixture, and the empty medication container, in the trash.
6. Boxed prescription or over-the-counter medications that are foil wrapped should not be removed. Instead, hide the foil-wrapped medications inside a disposable container such as an empty box and discard in the trash.

For more information on pharmaceuticals in the environment, check out SMARxT Disposal: A Prescription for a Healthy Planet.

References

1. Pharmaceuticals, Hormones, and Other Organic Wastewater Contaminants in U.S. Streams. U.S. Geological Survey. 2002 June.
2. Proper Disposal of Prescription Drugs. Office of National Drug Control Policy. 2009 Oct.
3. Daughton and Ruhoy. Environmental footprint of pharmaceuticals: the significance of factors beyond direct excretion to sewers. Environ Toxicol Chem. 2009 Dec;28(12):2495-521. Epub 2009 Apr 21.
   View abstract

With crude oil hitting a record high this week, gas prices here in the U.S. are soaring. According to CNN.com, the $100 fill-up has arrived in the United States.

Want to reduce your stress level, spend less money at the pump and do your part to help save the planet? Here’s one of the most simple yet effective tips that will accomplish all three: Slow Down.

Improve Your Financial Health: Use Less Gas

At highway speeds, wind resistance increases exponentially and fuel economy is reduced by approximately 4 miles per gallon for every 10 mile per hour increase [1]. Thus, the faster you drive, the more it will cost you. Consider this [1].

In a typical family sedan, every 10 miles per hour you drive over 60 is like the price of gasoline going up about 54 cents a gallon. That figure will be even higher for less fuel-efficient vehicles that go fewer miles on a gallon to start with.

That’s based on a $3.25 price per gallon, which is less than the current price of gas. So we’re talking more than 54 cents a gallon.

Additionally, if you do the math, speeding doesn’t save you anywhere near the time you might think it does. An average 30 mile commute traveling at 65 miles/hour takes 28 minutes, while that same trip at 80 miles/hour takes 23 minutes. You save a whole 5 minutes by driving 15 MPH faster.

How much money is that 5 minutes worth?

Reduce Stress and Stay Safe

Moderate levels of stress from a variety of sources, including other motorists, traffic congestion and roadway conditions, are common in everyday driving. However, driver stress has been shown to also be influenced by a combination of situational and personal factors, including factors external to the driving context [2].

Not surprisingly, studies have found that life stress is associated with higher rates of accidents and disease [3]. It’s been estimated that drivers who have experienced a recent stressful event are five times more likely to cause fatal accidents than unstressed drivers [4].

If you’re running late, remember that no matter how fast you drive, you’re still going to be late. If you’re under a great deal of personal stress, it’s probably best to avoid driving altogether.

Statistically, people who drive too fast cause or contribute to almost one-third of all fatal crashes. In 2006,13,543 lives were lost in speeding-related crashes [5]. Excessive speed does a number of things:

• it increases the distance a vehicle travels when a driver reacts to a dangerous situation
• it reduces a driver’s ability to steer safely around objects in the road
• it extends the distance necessary to stop

Want to reduce your stress level, spend less money on gas and do your part to help save the planet?

Just Slow Down!

David over at The Good Human has some additional tips on saving money, saving fuel and saving the environment.

References

1. Slow down a little, save a lot of gas. Issue #1: America’s Money. CNN Money. 2008 Mar 27.
2. Hennessy et al. The Influence of Traffic Congestion, Daily Hassles, and Trait Stress Susceptibility on State Driver Stress: An Interactive Perspective. Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research 5(2);162–179
   doi: 10.1111/j.1751-9861.2000.tb00072.x
3. Stuart and Brown. The relationship of stress and coping ability to incidence of diseases and accidents. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 25(4), 255-260. 1981.
   View abstract
4. Brenner and Selzer. Risk of causing a fatal accident associated with alcoholism, psychopathology, and stress: further analysis of previous data. Behav Sci. 1969 Nov;14(6):490-5.
   View abstract
5. Traffic Safety Facts 2006 Data. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration National Center for Statistics and Analysis. 2006.

We’ve talked previously about bioethanol and its impact on health. According to Juan Enriquez, Chairman and CEO of Biotechonomy, a life sciences research and investment firm, and a member of the management team at Synthetic Genomics, a company dedicated to commercializing synthetic genomic processes and naturally occurring processes for alternative energy solutions, bioethanol is not bioenergy.

TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, is a global and growing community that brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, and challenges them to give the talk of their lives in just 18 minutes. In September 2007, TED hosted a salon on climate change with the goal of exploring some radical scientific solutions that just might be ideas worth spreading. Juan Enriquez gave a talk about the potential of applying biological principles to the problem of fuel creation and the lessons we can learn from agriculture.

Enriquez predicts that shifting the mapping of the human genome from the world of science to the world of commerce will reshape vast sectors of the world economy and blur the boundaries between businesses – agribusiness and chemicals to healthcare and pharmaceuticals to energy and computing [1]. Almost 10 years ago, he suggested that energy companies may eventually engineer energy sources from plants rather than resorting to fossil fuels [2].

What does all this have to do with health? Imagine a world where energy is extracted from coal, not by burning it, but by having something process it in a biological fashion. Coal-burning power plants are the single largest industrial source of air pollution [3]. Imagine the impact not burning coal would have on the air we breathe.

In his TED talk, Enriquez advances that:

Bioenergy is … beginning to understand the transition that occurred in agriculture from brute force into biological force …

His lecture is a facscinating look at how a number of very smart people are thinking of how to apply biological principles to grow our own energy as efficiently as we grow wheat.

References

1. Enriquez and Goldberg. “Transforming Life, Transforming Business: The Life Science Revolution.” In The Digital Enterprise: How To Reshape Your Business For A Connected World, edited by Nicholas G. Carr. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 2001.
2. Enriquez J. Genomics and the world’s economy. Science. 1998 Aug 14;281(5379):925-6.
   View abstract
3. Power Plants, Your Health and the Environment. Clear the Air, a joint project of the Clean Air Task Force, U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund and the National Environmental Trust. 2002, Aug 21.

In participation with Blog Action Day, an event where bloggers from around the world unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind – the environment – today’s article discusses recent advances in the use of biodegradable materials for drug and gene delivery.
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