If you have medications filling up a medicine chest that are outdated or that you no longer are required to take; you might wonder what you are supposed to do with them. Improper disposal of medications have led to concerns with contaminating the ground water, or dangers if a family member accidentally takes one of these medications.

FDA experts suspect that over 100 children die each year after ingesting someone’s left over medication. It is hard to know the true magnitude of this problem. More than 500,000 children under 5 years old were reported to the poison control centers in 2007 for taking a family member’s prescription medicine.

Some medication in extended release form can be extremely dangerous if the capsules are chewed by a toddler. Discarding medicines in the trash are at risk to be stolen, or accidentally ingested by children or animals. Medicines can contaminate water supplies if they are routinely flushed into the sewer system. The American Pharmacists Association and the federal government recommend flushing narcotics down the drain, but not other unused or expired drugs.

Sidney Health Center Pharmacy Services will sponsor a medication take-back program at their booth at the Community Health Fair giving participants an opportunity to dispose of unused medicines properly.

The pharmacy department will be working with Sidney Law Enforcement officers to collect unused and expired prescription medications and will dispose of them according to recommended guidelines. Participants will also be given education information about how to properly dispose of medications at home.

So gather your old medications, the expired pills and the medicine the doctor has told you to stop taking, and bring them to the health fair. Please bring them in the original bottle or container, if possible. They will be safely disposed for you at no cost.