For more information about collection sites in your area and ways to keep prescriptions safe at home, visit the DEA website.

A 2021 Peer Reviewed Study in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology found that tens of thousands of doses of medication flow into the Chesapeake Bay every year! Researchers sampled water from six different sites in one Baltimore watershed every week for one year. The samples indicated varying levels of drenergics (prescribed for asthma and other cardiovascular and respiratory issues), antibiotics, antidepressants, antiepileptics, antifungals, antihypertensives, urologicals, and painkillers separated into two categories, non-opioid and opioid analgesics. 

 The highest concentrations they found were of non-opioid analgesics like Tylenol, Advil, and Aleve. With concentration levels being the equivalent of 30,000 tablets of acetaminophen!

The researchers think the source of this medical pollution is from failing sewage infrastructure – meaning you should never flush you old medicines down the drain!

 In previous studies, scientists have observed medicine in waterways makes crayfish act strangely, impairs crabs’ and cuttlefishes’ ability to learn, and causes shrimp to swim toward predators. What’s more, the new study’s results suggest that the mix of compounds that marine life is exposed to changes constantly, which could make it hard to adapt.

Learn more about stormwater at: https://sustainability.umbc.edu/home/what-umbc-is-doing/campus-initiatives/water/