[cougarnurse]

Thought this would be of interest: Triage | Chicago Tribune | Blog

The Tribune has done what the city of Chicago has neglected to do: tested the city’s water supply and found trace amounts of drugs and chemicals.
Today’s story is sure to sound an alarm, even though there’s no evidence the city’s water is unsafe. Now, the question becomes how officials will respond.
You have a part to play too. You can’t do anything about those drugs that pass through your body and into the water supply. But you can do something about those old, half-filled medicine bottles sitting around in your medicine cabinet.
Chicago’s Department of the Environment will take un-used prescription medicines every Tuesday and Thursday at a recycling facility on Goose Island. (Tuesdays, 7 am through noon. Thursdays, 2 p.m. through 7 p.m. 1150 N. North Branch on Goose Island, two blocks east of the Kennedy Expressway at Division.)
The medications are incinerated, along with other hazardous waste materials delivered to the site. The facility is also open the first Saturday of every month, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Every spring and fall, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency encourages consumers to dispose of hazardous wastes, including old medications, antifreeze, motor oil, weed killers, insecticides, pesticides, household cleaners and more. Collections began last week; find the statewide schedule here.
The Chicago events are scheduled on Saturday, April 19, at the DeVry Technical Institute (3300 N. Campbell) and Saturday, April 26 at the Goose Island Facility (see address above) from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
If you can’t make it to these sites, the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy offers the following advice:
Take-unused medications out of their bottles and mix with used coffee grounds or kitty litter, to minimize the possibility that a neighborhood dog will eat them or that they’ll be picked up and illegally diverted. Put the mix in a nondescript container and throw it in the trash.
Some drugs should be flushed down the toilet instead of thrown away, the Office of National Drug Control Policy suggests. They include powerful painkillers such as Actiq, Duragesic Transdermal patches, OxyContin tablets, Percocet, Fentora, and more. For a complete list, go here.
Another resource is the Smarxt Disaposal web site, which suggests that you crush pills or capsules before mixing them with sawdust or coffee grounds and throwing them away.
Remember to remove labels from your prescription bottles before tossing them; you don’t want anyone to get hold of that information.
For readers in other parts of the Midwest, there’s a lot going in communities across the region in the next few weeks. See this list of 70 drop-off sites in eight states at the regional site for the Environmental Protection Agency.
If you've got any other tips for disposing of prescription drugs, send them this way.

Interesting, eh?