Protecting What's
Important to You
Important to You
April 2025 – Spring Cleaning? Don’t Forget Your Medicine Cabinet
Spring has officially arrived. For many of us, this is synonymous with Spring cleaning, and while you’re at it, don’t neglect cleaning out your medicine cabinets.
Expired or unused medications pose a risk to our health and our environment when not disposed of properly.
- More than 90% of all poisoning incidents in children aged 5 and younger happen in the home.
- About half of potentially toxic exposures in children result from improper dosage or accidental ingestion of medicines found in the home.
- More than 50% of people who abuse prescription drugs report that they get them for free from friends or relatives.
When we allow unused and expired medications to accumulate, we increase the risk of accidental poisoning, especially in young children who are curious and often explore their environment by putting things in their mouths. These drugs can also lead to overdoses or abuse by people with addictions. Additionally, both prescription and over-the-counter medications can lead to contamination of our water, air and soil when not disposed of properly.
It’s a good idea to periodically go through your medicine cabinets, nightstands, kitchen cupboards – wherever else you may store your medications – and sort out and dispose all those that have expired or are unused. In accordance with New Jersey’s Project Medicine Drop, some local police departments have secure drop boxes set up for the disposal of solid pharmaceuticals. These include pills, capsules, inhalers, patches, and even pet medications. Unfortunately, liquid medications, lotions, aerosol cans, syringes and needles are examples of items that cannot be disposed of in this manner.
Other ways to dispose of unwanted pharmaceuticals include finding a drug take-back event in your community, using prepaid drug mail-back envelopes available through some pharmacies, or calling your local police department or the New Jersey Department of Consumer Affairs for direction. With a little effort, we can all do our part to end abuse and diversion of prescription drugs, making our communities a little safer and healthier.