20 CASTLE CONNOLLY TOP DOCTORS IN QUEENS • NOVEMBER 19, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
5 safety tips for medications in your home
(BPT) - Did you know that 70,980
Americans died from drug overdoses in
2019? The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention reported that figure, citing
over 194 drug-related deaths in the
U.S. every day last year. And unfortunately,
the COVID-19 pandemic has only
increased the dangers posed by misuse
or abuse of drugs in the home. Beyond
the fact that the pandemic has temporarily
closed resources such as drug dropbox
sites and take-back day events, opioid
and other drug misuse risks have also
increased due to financial and emotional
stressors such as isolation and unemployment.
Any medications in the home carry the
risk of someone misusing them, whether
accidentally or on purpose. According
to the National Institutes of Health, an
estimated 92% of post-surgical prescriptions
went unused, making them available
for potential misuse. And according
to a Journal of the American Medical
Association study, over 60% of people
with leftover prescription opioids kept
pills for future use rather than disposing
of them, with one in five admitting they
shared medication with someone else.
How can you help prevent drug misuse?
Here are tips to keep your home safer for
everyone.
1. Store medicines securely
While many store medications in a
medicine cabinet, humidity levels in a
bathroom can actually break down medications,
making them less effective. In
addition, storing meds in a medicine cabinet
makes them susceptible to theft by
anyone entering your home looking for
drugs. Storing prescription medications
in a bedside table may also seem convenient,
but again leaves them open for misuse
or abuse.
This is especially true if you have children
living in or frequently visiting your
home, it’s best to keep all medications -
including vitamins - in a high cabinet and
secured out of harm’s way.
2. Discard medications safely
Go through prescription and over-thecounter
medications regularly to identify
leftover or expired medicines. This helps
prevent accidental or purposeful misuse,
which protects your entire family.
To safely dispose of medicines, the
Deterra® Drug Deactivation System is
a medication disposal pouch or container
that can be used at home. It is the
safest, most effective way to irreversibly
destroy and properly dispose of unused,
unwanted and expired medications in
minutes, with the simple addition of tap
water. Deterra is the only product available
today that is scientifically proven
to deactivate prescription and over-thecounter
medicines, including addictive
opioids. Deterra’s plant-based packaging,
with non-toxic ingredients, also helps prevent
harmful chemicals from entering
landfills and water supplies.
3. Keep poison control
information handy
Post the contact information for Poison
Control where everyone can see it, like
on your refrigerator door. Access Poison
Control online at www.poison.org or by
calling 1-800-222-1222.
4. Don’t call medications
“candy”
If someone in your family takes medicine
or vitamins, never refer to it as
“candy” to convince the child to take it or
to explain why you’re taking it. This could
make the child more likely to try taking
pills that they find.
5. Don’t share prescriptions
You may think you’re doing a friend
or relative a favor by sharing pills from a
leftover pain prescription but that medication
was prescribed to you by a healthcare
provider for a specific purpose, with
knowledge of your health condition and
other medications you take. You may
not be aware of potentially harmful drug
interactions or side effects your friend
could experience by taking your medication.
Stay safe by disposing of unused
medications as soon as you no longer
need to take them.
Visit deterrasystem.com for more
information and to order Deterra Drug
Deactivation pouches to make your home
safer.
/www.poison.org
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/www.poison.org
/deterrasystem.com
