For many people, is there a large number of expired drugs that can't be handled at home? What's more, some old people think that although the drugs are expired, they still have efficacy, so they continue to take them. They don't know that the pollution of expired drugs is three times that of old batteries. Let's have a look.
'it's a headache to have a bunch of expired drugs at home. The community can't find a place to recycle them. It's easy to eat them at home, so we have to throw them away. 'the troubles of Zheng Wei, a Changchun citizen, are very common. 'if we don't throw the expired medicine in the garbage can, where can we throw it? We can't keep it at home moldy all the time. 'Chengdu citizen Ms. Xiong complained.
Family overdue drugs have been clearly listed in the national list of hazardous wastes. However, according to a recent survey, overdue drugs have not been specifically recycled and treated for a long time, and the overdue drugs in the homes of ordinary people are basically thrown away like ordinary household garbage. For a long time, expired drugs are facing the embarrassing situation of no one to recycle, no place to recycle and difficult to recycle, which hides a great risk of environmental pollution.
Three times more contaminated than old batteries
According to the white paper on the recovery of expired drugs from Chinese families released by Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd., about 78.6% of Chinese families have small medicine boxes, of which 30% to 40% have more than three years of validity, more than 80% have no habit of cleaning medicine boxes regularly, and about 15000 tons of expired drugs are produced in one year.
1 overdue drug pollution = 3 waste batteries pollution, about 5 years of water consumption of one person. "Ni Yidong, deputy general manager of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group, said that most of the drugs are easy to decompose and evaporate after expiration, emitting toxic gases, causing indoor environmental pollution and even harmful to human respiratory tract in serious cases. Most of the expired drugs are treated as domestic waste, which pollutes the air, soil and water environment.
According to the reporter, due to the scattered sources, it is difficult to concentrate on recycling. Referring to the international practice, China has now implemented an exemption management system for the waste drugs and their packages produced in the daily life of families. According to the list of exemption management of hazardous wastes, the whole process of waste drugs and their packages generated by families will not be managed according to hazardous wastes without classified collection; if classified collection is made, the collection process will not be managed according to hazardous wastes, but the transportation, storage, disposal and other links still need to be managed according to hazardous wastes.
The reporter visited Chengdu, Changchun and other places and found that it is difficult to see expired drug recycling points in urban communities and rural areas. Yu Lei, a clinical pharmacist in the clinical pharmacy department of West China Hospital of Sichuan University, said that the efficacy of the drug will be reduced and mildew will occur after expiration. If the drug is taken by mistake, there may be adverse events. Some chemicals of expired drugs will decompose, resulting in new substances that can easily lead to allergies, diarrhea and even life-threatening. If discarded casually, it may also cause pollution to water sources and land.
"Expired drugs have become a" small bomb "around us, so we must pay attention to them. Song Yanqing, director of the Pharmaceutical Department of the first hospital of Jilin University, said that statistics show that nearly one third of adverse drug reactions are caused by expired drugs or improper preservation of drugs. For example, expired tetracycline decomposition of harmful substances will damage the kidney tubular cells, resulting in acid can not be discharged from the body and lead to acidosis.
According to the reporter, at present, some illegal traders purchase expired drugs, and "renovate" them, and then put them on the market, and sell them to other areas or remote villages, which not only harms the health of the people, but also disturbs the order of the drug market.
After the expiry date of drugs, 30% or 50% off for recycling & hellip; & hellip; 'in some small streets near big hospitals in cities, you can see a lot of small stalls or advertisements for' collecting drugs'. "Expired drugs are generally sold in rural areas or small clinics, like some bulk tablets, without expiration date," said a drug dealer who recycled expired drugs. The bulk tablets are usually recycled for a few cents. After repacking, they can be sold for a few dollars. It's very good! "
'many people in the nearby community come here to sell it. It's no different from selling old newspapers, and they can make a little money. 'said the drug dealer frankly.
In 2017, Mentougou District of Beijing investigated and dealt with a case of reselling 'recycled drugs'. Suspect Li in less than half a year, illegal purchase, resale of drugs involved in the amount of up to 200000 yuan.
Lack of long-term mechanism for recovery of expired drugs
According to the reporter's investigation, although there are multiple hazards and risks in expired drugs, recycling has always been a big problem. The disposal of expired drugs involves many links, such as recovery, storage, pollution-free destruction and so on.
First, there is a lack of subject of responsibility. Article 49 of the drug administration law of China defines "drugs beyond the validity period" as "substandard drugs" and forbids the production and sale of substandard drugs. However, there is no explanation for the treatment of expired drugs and no provision for the subject responsible for the treatment of expired drugs. At present, although there are some local regulations on the treatment methods of expired drugs, they only stay at the level of "methods" and "opinions". At present, the recovery of expired drugs in families only depends on the public welfare activities of individual enterprises or government departments.
'the state didn't let us take the lead in recycling and didn't include it in the regulatory tasks of the Department. In fact, it's OK to manage, no matter what. "Said a food and drug administration official. The destruction of expired drugs is not a problem in terms of existing technology and equipment, but the main problem is that there is no collection channel. Moreover, the source of investment still needs to be solved. Waste drugs disposal is a public welfare behavior that needs government funds to guarantee. Expired drugs have no commercial value and are not enough to support commercial operation. In the past few years, some pharmaceutical companies carried out drug recycling in combination with promotional activities mainly for commercial considerations, and the coverage was limited and difficult to sustain.
In Europe and the United States and other countries, the overdue drug recycling projects are generally funded by the government, drug production or sales enterprises, with pharmacists and pharmacies as the main recycling bodies, which are recycled by fixed-point, regular or mail, and then classified for treatment or landfill and incineration in the waste dump.
The second is the lack of awareness of mass recycling. According to the reporter's visit, many people don't know enough about the hazards of expired drugs and lack the awareness of active recovery. Last year, Sichuan Nanchong Chuanbei Medical College investigated 857 college students from two universities in the city. The results showed that 89.5% of the college students did not participate in the recovery of expired drugs, 58.6% of them did not know the recovery location and 28% did not know that the drugs could be recovered.
According to a questionnaire survey of 1040 local residents conducted by the food and Drug Administration of Yanta District of Xi'an City, nearly 70% of them think that the convenience of recycling affects their enthusiasm for drug recycling; last year, Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences of Jinan University conducted a questionnaire survey of 544 residents in Zhangqiu district and its surrounding villages and towns in Jinan City, showing that 39% of them support replacing the old with the new, and 11% believe that Self treatment is more appropriate, 30% are in favor of paid recycling, and only 20% are in favor of free recycling.
Third, a long-term mechanism has not yet been formed. The reporter learned that at present, China has not established a complete long-term mechanism for the recovery of expired drugs. It is almost difficult for communities and villages to find designated recovery boxes for expired drugs, and there is no special person responsible for the registration and safekeeping.
The reporter learned from a large chain drugstore in Jilin province that the drugstore only received drug recycling during the activity period notified by the food and drug administration, about 2-3 times a year, and the rest of the time did not receive scattered expired drugs from the people.
'there are very few enterprises participating in the recycling now, and due to the particularity of expired drugs, they need to use the professional destruction method of medical supplies for destruction. However, the cost of destruction is too expensive in many places, and the expensive cost of destruction has become a bottleneck for enterprises to continue the public welfare undertakings. Chen Zhizhao, director of marketing planning department of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd., said that in 2004, the enterprise started to carry out the public welfare activities of family overdue drugs recovery, with an average annual investment of tens of millions yuan, and an average annual collection of about 122 tons of overdue drugs in all cities of the country.
Guangyao group now treats expired drugs in the same way as the treatment standard of medical waste, that is, to find a qualified local treatment company for harmless treatment in each region, such as high-temperature incineration in Guangzhou, the cost per ton is about 12000 yuan, which does not include the human investment of the enterprise itself.
Social organizations should be encouraged to participate actively
Some people believe that to solve the "persistent disease" of overdue drugs recycling, it is urgent to speed up the establishment of a unified and long-term standardized recycling mechanism, so that recycling becomes relatively easy and simple.
Liu Junhai, a professor at the school of law of Renmin University of China, suggested that the relevant state regulatory authorities should fill in the gaps in laws and regulations on the recovery of expired drugs in a timely manner, regulate citizens' behavior in dealing with expired drugs in their families, endow pharmacies and production enterprises with the responsibility for the recovery of expired drugs, establish a network for the recovery of expired drugs in their families, formulate a long-term system for the recovery management, and change the current situation that the recovery of expired drugs in their families only depends on The current situation of public welfare activities carried out by other enterprises or government departments.
Industry insiders also suggested that community medical services should be further popularized through the medical reform policy, drug safety education for patients should be strengthened, cost control for the use of medical insurance cards should be strengthened, and the habit of excessive drug storage of residents should be changed. At the same time, the recovery of expired drugs can be organically combined with the existing community health service policies, play the role of grass-roots health service institutions, guide residents to put expired drugs into the community health institutions for recovery, and also encourage them through community health account points and other ways.
Li Weixing, sales manager of Jilin BeiYao Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., called for the establishment of special recovery points for expired drugs in communities and rural areas, which are under the leadership of the government and coordinated by multiple departments. We can also encourage the public to improve the recovery awareness of expired drugs by giving back over-the-counter drugs, enjoying the same kind of drug discounts and other ways of benefiting the people.
Yang Zhaoxia, director of Beijing Forestry University Students' state law research center, believes that the government should encourage social organizations to actively participate in and introduce third-party forces to jointly solve the problem of drug recycling.
"From the perspective of enterprises, we hope that more social forces can do the second half of the harmless treatment, without the enterprises to bear the costs. For enterprises engaged in the recovery of expired drugs, we hope that the state will support them in tax relief and other aspects. "Chen Zhizhao said that there needs to be a clear responsibility for the harmless treatment of expired drugs, which can lead the industry association to explore the establishment of special subsidies for the harmless treatment of abandoned drugs, and reward enterprises with good recovery and disposal work.
Experts believe that we can explore the use of 'Internet +' to make the recovery of expired drugs more simple and efficient. In the middle of March this year, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. initiated the establishment of the first "national household overdue drug recycling alliance" in China, and launched online recycling pilot in 17 cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu. Users can 'move their fingers' on their mobile phones, scan the tracking code on the expired medicine box, fill in the address, contact information and other information, and then call the courier to pick up the medicine at home free of charge with one key. After the whole recycling process is completed, they can also receive the incentive coupon.
According to reports, couriers in different cities will seal and pack the collected expired drugs, label them, indicate the recycling point, handler, recycling unit and recycling date, and then transport them uniformly