Have you ever thought about assisting your aging parents in cleaning out their medicine cabinet? A good day to complete this task would be the third Friday in the month of April which is recognized as National Clean Out Your Medicine Cabinet Day. When it comes to medications, did you know that proper disposal of unused or expired doses can be important both for human health and our environment? Medications left in your medicine cabinet past their expiration date or useful life, or disposed of improperly, can be a danger to your family, friends, and neighbors. Let us share more with you about why.
In your own family you may not have anyone facing any issues with abuse of medications, but your aging parents may have loved ones who visit their home and have access to their medicine cabinet, who do struggle with these issues. Perhaps your parents think their cabinet is safe because it does not contain any opioids but opioids are not the only problem. Your parents may have medications like ADHD medicine, sleeping pills, and antidepressants which can be misused and cause poisoning that may be fatal. It is, therefore, very important to keep your aging parents’ medicine cabinet protected, and dispose of any medications past their prime.
As far as disposal of old medications is concerned, you cannot simply throw them into the garbage. It can actually be against the law in many areas. This is because medications thrown into the garbage leak into the soil at landfills and contaminate the area. Also, deciding to flush medications down the toilet can be even worse, because they can become part of the water supply. These medications can have ill effects on drinking water, and on aquatic life in your area. It can even get into the bloodstream of fish and shellfish, causing even more harm to humans and other sea animals who consume these creatures.
With the advent of National Clean Out Your Medicine Cabinet Day, you can now get organized and collect medications for disposal. In fact, next on the horizon is National Drug Takeback Day. On this day many civic organizations, in addition to medical offices and pharmacies, may have bins in public areas. It can be convenient and easy to dispose of your unused or expired medications by placing them directly into these bins. The authorities can then dispose of them properly.
At Britton G. Swank, P.A., our mission is to guide you in the right direction to help you provide for yourself and your loved ones no matter what the future holds. We want to help you control the assets you have, leave them to people and causes you care about, when you want, in the way you want. We can help you take care of yourself and those you love in the event of disability due to illness, injury or old age. No matter what risks unfold, we can help give you the comfort of knowing you are prepared. We want you to feel good about your future and the future of your loved ones. We encourage you to contact us and schedule a meeting.