PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Huge quantities of unwanted pharmaceuticals are left in households, notably as a consequence of the rising drug demand caused by improved healthcare and the aging population. Unwanted pharmaceuticals may thus easily end up polluting ecosystems upon disposal. This pharmaceutical waste issue has been aggravated during the coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) by excess prescription and panic buying. Unwanted household pharmaceuticals are normally collected by owners and volunteers, then incinerated in centralized facilities, yet with low efficiency during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Most pharmaceuticals could be recycled because they are rather stable, however there is actually no sustainable strategy to manage unwanted pharmaceuticals in a pandemic. Here I review the management of unwanted pharmaceuticals in households during the pandemic, with emphasis on drug take-back programs, waste minimization and recycling efforts. Reducing pharamaceutical waste could be done by informing people on what to do with unwanted pharmaceutical products; using machine-readable codes for automatic sorting; and applying existing techniques for recovery of active pharmaceutical ingredients for reuse. I propose a new strategy where owners sort their unwanted pharmaceuticals and submit information online. This will generate coded mailing labels that allow the owner to separate pharmaceuticals into categories such as opened, unused, expired, and non-expired. Once collected by recycling facilities and manufacturers, active ingredients will be extracted to create new pharmaceuticals which will be recycled to other patients.
摘要：
大量不需要的药品留在家庭中，特别是由于医疗保健的改善和人口老龄化导致的药物需求增加。因此，不需要的药物在处置后很容易最终污染生态系统。在冠状病毒大流行(COVID-19)期间，由于过量处方和恐慌性购买，这种制药废物问题加剧了。不需要的家用药品通常由业主和志愿者收集，然后在集中设施中焚烧，然而，在COVID-19封锁期间效率低下。大多数药物可以回收，因为它们相当稳定，然而，实际上没有可持续的策略来管理大流行中不需要的药物。在这里，我回顾了大流行期间家庭中不需要的药品的管理，强调药物回收计划，废物最小化和回收努力。减少药物废物可以通过告知人们如何处理不需要的药物产品来实现;使用机器可读代码进行自动分类;并应用现有技术回收活性药物成分以供重复使用。我提出了一种新的策略，即所有者对不需要的药品进行分类并在线提交信息。这将生成编码的邮寄标签，允许所有者将药品分为类别，如打开，未使用,已过期,并且未过期。一旦被回收设施和制造商收集，活性成分将被提取以制造新的药物，这些药物将被回收给其他患者。
