Pharmaceutical pollution sources and solutions: Survey of human and veterinary medication purchasing, use, and disposal

Vatovec, Christine; Kolodinsky, Jane; Callas, Peter W.; Hart, Christine; Gallagher, Kati

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112106

Cited by 28 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 91%

“…Contrary to the report in a study in Vermont USA where 76% of the participants were not informed by the pharmacist on what to do with leftover medications [ 49 ], the PCs agree with the pharmacists that this information was satisfactorily provided. This is important as improperly disposed pharmaceuticals have been reported to have untold consequences on the environment [ 49 , 50 ]. Patients or PCs equipped with the knowledge of the impact that drugs disposed of improperly could have on the environment are more likely to return leftover medications for proper disposal.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 91%

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Patient medication counselling in community pharmacy: evaluation of the quality and content

Showande

Laniyan

2022

J of Pharm Policy and Pract

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Background Patient medication counselling (PMC) is a pharmaceutical care service targeted at optimizing patient drug use, safety and improving treatment outcomes. This study assessed the content and quality of PMC from the community pharmacists’ (CPs) and pharmacy customers’ (PCs) perspectives. Methods A cross-sectional questionnaire-guided survey was conducted in Ibadan, Nigeria, among 125 CPs and 612 PCs. The 35-counselling items validated United States Pharmacopeia Medication Counselling Behaviour Guideline scale with 10-point graded responses (1 = poor to 10 = excellent) was used. Self-reported medication counselling information content provided by CPs and received by PCs was assessed and expressed in median and interquartile ranges. The quality of PMC was evaluated and graded as poor (1–29.9%), unsatisfactory (30–59.9%), satisfactory (60–79.9%) and excellent (80–100%). Associations between demographic variables and overall quality of counselling were determined with Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis tests at p < 0.05. Results The response rate was 92.5% and 97.6% for PCs and CPs, respectively. The PCs’ opinions on the individual content of the PMC provided by the CPs were significantly different from the pharmacists’ self-report (p < 0.05). Some of the PMC content included how to take the medicine PC = 6.00 (2.00) vs CP = 8.00 (2.00), information on possible side effects PC = 6.00 (2.00) vs CP = 8.00 (2.00), taking history of allergies and other medications PC = 6.00 (6.00) vs CP = 7.00 (1.00), and how to incorporate drug regimen into daily routine PC = 5.00 (6.00) vs CP = 8.00 (3.00). The quality of PMC purportedly provided by CPs and received by the PCs was satisfactory (75%) and unsatisfactory (55%), respectively. The quality of communication counselling offered by CPs trained in Nigeria (Mean rank = 62.49) was higher than those trained outside Nigeria (Mean rank = 26.40), U = 228.00, p = 0.024. The PC’s age, marital status, and highest educational qualification were significantly associated with their opinion on the quality of counselling received. Conclusions Both the community pharmacists and pharmacy customers reported the provision of patient medication counselling on side effects, drug usage, medication history and allergies among others. However, the quality of counselling provided by the pharmacists was satisfactory, but the quality of counselling received by the pharmacy customers was unsatisfactory. Pharmacists may need to engage pharmacy customers more during medication counselling.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 91%

Patient medication counselling in community pharmacy: evaluation of the quality and content

Showande

Laniyan

2022

J of Pharm Policy and Pract

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“…A survey conducted by Hedendrud et al (2019) in Sweden showed that, in total, 87% of respondents reported the use of OTC drugs in the prior 6-month period [ 5 ]. Similar data were obtained by Vatovec et al (2021) in a study conducted among 421 respondents from the US in which 85% of respondents had obtained OTC drugs in the previous 12 months [ 6 ]. In turn, in a study carried out in 2008–2011 on a group of 7091 people in Germany, 40.2% of respondents admitted that in the 7 days preceding the survey, they had used medicines or dietary supplements such as vitamins or minerals [ 7 ].…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…Yu et al (2019) noticed that for young adults and aged people, family members such as parents and children appeared to be the main advisors on the disposal of medications [ 67 ]. In a different study, 54% of respondents in the US reported having looked for drug disposal information, with the Internet being the primary source of information [ 6 ], whereas 56.1% of patients from Jordan reported that social media was the preferred method of education regarding the disposal of unused or expired medications [ 72 ]. Electronic media are, according to respondents among the Ethiopian community, the best source of ecological information (49.6%), with doctors also a good source (24.5%), whereas, only 8.5% of the participants in this study indicated pharmacists [ 23 ].…”

Section: Methods Of Disposal Of Unused/expired Pharmaceuticalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The analysis of the behavior of pharmacy students in Saudi Arabia showed that the percentage of female students found to throw unused or expired drugs into the household garbage was significantly higher compared with the male students [ 37 ]. On the other hand, Akkici et al (2018), in studies conducted among respondents in Turkey, observed that a higher percentage of women declared having changed their unused drug handling practice (49.9%) than men (38.5%) [ 80 ], whereas age, gender or education did not affect the environmental behavior of the respondents in Romania, the USA, Thailand or Ireland with regard to the handling of unused drugs [ 6 , 46 , 59 , 71 , 79 ].…”

Section: Methods Of Disposal Of Unused/expired Pharmaceuticalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Household Pharmaceutical Waste Disposal as a Global Problem—A Review

Rogowska

Zimmermann

2022

IJERPH

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The negative effect of the pharmaceuticals presence (persistence?) in various components of the environment is a global problem today. These compounds are released into the environment as a result of, inter alia, their use and improper disposal. Therefore, it is important to reduce excessive drug consumption and to develop a system for the collection of unused/expired pharmaceuticals. The effectiveness of actions in this area is inextricably linked with the need to educate society on how to deal properly with unwanted medications. The aim of the study was to show that the inappropriate handling of unused/expired drugs by society is an important problem in waste management systems, and it impacts the state of the environment. Forty-eight scientific articles published between 2012 and 2021 were taken into account that discussed the systems in various countries for the collection of unused/expired pharmaceuticals. This literature review shows that the main method of disposing of unused/expired medications, according to respondents from different countries, is either by disposing of them in household waste or flushing them into the sewage system. This is also the case in countries with systems or programs for the return of redundant drugs, which indicates that these systems are not sufficiently effective. This may be influenced by many factors, including the lack or ineffective education of the society.

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Aptasensors in environmental forensics: Tracking the silent killers

Dube

Satish

Rawtani

2023

WIREs Forensic Science

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Since its inception, environmental forensics has observed expansion of its horizons across several threats to life forms, be it pertaining to wildlife trafficking or tracking the release of effluents containing pharmaceutical drugs, toxins, pesticides, heavy metals, pathogenic microbes, and microplastics. With the substantial growth of pharmaceutical industry over the past few decades, especially with respect to therapeutic personal care products and over the counter drugs, a new threat to environment has emerged from pharmaceutical toxicity.Due to the recalcitrant nature and poor wastewater treatment practices related to these pollutants, they leach into different strata of ecosystem like aquatic, terrestrial, and atmospheric systems. These drugs pose a threat to several life forms even at trace concentrations. This article aims at providing a profound perspective by exhaustively reviewing several classes of pharmaceutical drugs that are silently threatening the wildlife and environment. The sensitive, specific, and rapid detection of such drugs menacing the environment and wildlife is pertinent and can be achieved through aptamer-based biosensors known as aptasensors. These are a rising class of biosensors with vast application potential in numerous fields including environmental and wildlife forensics. This article also highlights the gap in research in the availability of rapid sensors for trace detection of drugs in environment hence encouraging researchers to explore the under-explored potential of aptasensors in environmental forensics. Highly sensitive and selective detection of such drugs is crucial in narrowing down the origin of such pollutants so as to aid the regulatory authorities in enforcing control over their release into environment.

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Pharmaceutical pollution sources and solutions: Survey of human and veterinary medication purchasing, use, and disposal

Cited by 28 publications

References 74 publications

Patient medication counselling in community pharmacy: evaluation of the quality and content

Patient medication counselling in community pharmacy: evaluation of the quality and content

Household Pharmaceutical Waste Disposal as a Global Problem—A Review

Aptasensors in environmental forensics: Tracking the silent killers

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