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Activists fight for clean water, burn drugs

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 30, 2008 at 8:22 am

From the Oakland Tribune:

Hoping to prevent mutated and sex-altered fish and other aquatic life in Bay Area waters, a crew of environmentalists set up shop in Jack London Square Sunday to collect several pounds of unwanted personal medication for proper incineration.

Many people who find themselves with expired or unwanted meds will simply throw them in the trash or flush them down the toilet not realizing the chemicals are likely to end up in our groundwater, rivers and lakes, or even San Francisco Bay, said Luis Frigo, a spokesman for the Teleosis Institute, a Berkeley-based nonprofit group specializing in green health care issues.

“Ninety percent of senior citizens in this country are taking between one and 10 regular medications,” Frigo said. “And they sometimes switch prescriptions or don’t finish treatments, which leaves all these extra drugs left over. They flush them down, and they have no idea the damage it can do.”

The drug drop-off table was a one-day event leading into No Drugs Down the Drain Week, which will team state and local officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from Oct. 4 to 11.

Read more from the Oakland Tribune by clicking here. For more information on No Drugs Down the Drain Week, visit: http://www.nodrugsdownthedrain.org/

September 30, 2008 · Filed Under Drinking Water

Comments

One Response to “Activists fight for clean water, burn drugs”

  1. Luigi on November 20th, 2008 10:56 am

    It is critical to collect medication before gets discarded, because the current process is contaminating our waterways. I will like to see a map of all our waters in the state, and the current amount of pollutants, etc.
    On another topic, Protecting our watershed is critical too, reducing clear cutting as much as possible, specially sensitive areas surrounding the Sierras.
    Luigi

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