We tend to keep our medication, telling ourselves: we “never know, it can always be useful”. It is high time to put some storage in your medicine cabinet to sort it out regularly. Indeed, keeping them at home is a real danger and bringing them back to the pharmacy means doing good to the planet for no kopeck. We explain to you.
Article written in partnership with the Ministry of Ecological Transition (MTE)
The imperturbable Marie Kondo would undoubtedly pull out her beautiful, straight hair if she landed near your medicine cabinet or medicine rack. Stored, your bottles, syrups, ointments, capsules, old antibiotic treatments and nasal pschitts of all kinds are waiting for you to finally make the decision to sort it out. How? 'Or' What ? You don't know too much about it.
However, for several years now, Cyclamed, the eco-organization responsible for sorting and recovering drugs, has been warning about our bad habits. Changing it is simple, it minimizes the risks to our health and it even benefits the environment. We explain to you.
1. We risk a domestic accident
In France, the figures related to medication accidents are dramatic, and could easily be avoided. In fact, one in ten hospitalizations *, and nearly 50% of intoxications in children ** are linked to it. In short, more than any other ingestible product in your home, these must be subject to vigilance and, above all, kept away from vulnerable people.
The solution : If it has not already been done, we invest in a real medicine cabinet, which we take the time to hang up high, and to lock with a small key that we will then stash in a hiding place that we will remember ( so as not to find yourself looking for her all over the apartment one day with an acute migraine, looking sadly at our paracetamol pills through the closed door).
2. We expose ourselves to inappropriate treatments
A drug is not a product like any other. No, we do not keep a drug that has "worked" on us and pass it on to another member of our household. Each treatment is linked to a particular individual, who has a medical history, a precise pathology, an age, an own weight, and therefore cannot be transmitted to others without medical advice. Medication confusion for the elderly, overdoses for the youngest, or even accidental ingestion for young children, misplacing medication can involve more unnecessary risks than it seems.
The solution : On non-expired medicines that you want to keep, you clearly write (not in pencil, therefore) the date of opening and the name of the family member for whom it is intended. Little more: we dedicate a floor to adults and another to children, in order to avoid any confusion, even with the most "basic" drugs which could pass under our identification radar in the event of panic.
3. There is a risk of polluting soils and rivers
A first sorting is necessary to identify drugs from other health products (drugstore, hygiene, etc.) and thus distinguish between the different forms of drugs and other products that are not (food supplements or toothpaste, etc.). Are you tempted by the “big garbage bag” solution and presto, let's get rid of everything? Big mistake. Buried underground with the rest of our waste, drugs, which contain active ingredients, continue their life by polluting the soil. And no, we don't empty our syrups in the sink or the toilet either, since they would spill into rivers (gulps). On the other hand, we are embarking on a refined sorting. But how ?
The solution : we use the Cyclamed device, present in all pharmacies (and this didactic and very informative article that you are reading) to distinguish the Unused Medicines (Unused Medicines), which, for their part, will return to the pharmacy, from the rest of the health or hygiene products.
First step, we dive into the heap and we start by separating all the cardboard packaging and the paper instructions to put them directly in the selective sorting (yellow bin)
Then make three piles:
- MNUs : among them, we have all forms of medication: capsules / tablets in their small aluminum packaging (blisters), ointments, nasal and throat sprays or inhalers, syrups, suppositories, ampoules, eye drops, etc. . We put them all in a bag that will go with us to the pharma.
- Cosmetics and parapharmacy products : beware of false friends, food supplements (which you should have finished if you had followed your treatment to the end …) do not go to the pharmacy but in this pile, with shampoos, shower gels, dressings and all this tintouin that will go down to the household garbage (black bin, classic).
- DASRI (Waste from Infectious Risk Care Activities for Self-Treatment Patients) such as syringes or needles, for example, which are placed in a secure box distributed in pharmacies.
At work, it will be quick. And if we have the slightest doubt to distinguish the drugs, we go to the Cyclamed search engine, which will tell us in one click the final destination of our unidentified products.
4. We miss an (easy) gesture for the planet
Ok, you are proud because your home now is super tidy and you have taken an inventory of your meds. But did you know that in addition to taking care of your health and that of your loved ones, securing your home and avoiding further poisoning our Earth, you have taken an extra step to protect the environment?
Indeed, safely recovered by your pharmacist, your MNUs will now embark on a new virtuous career. Incinerated for energy purposes, they will thus be used to provide energy. And each year, this extremely simple circuit, which has become a routine for you, will heat and light some 7,000 homes and public establishments. In short, more than clever, the “Cyclamed reflex” is a necessary reflex.
Convinced by your new virtuous life as a TRI-athlete? So continue to sort, store, return to the pharmacy, share the info and discover all #LesBonnesHabitudes on the lesbonneshabitudes.gouv.fr website!
* Study "Adverse drug reactions: incidence and risk" (EMIR), 2007, French Agency for the safety of health products.
** Study by Dr Lavaud.