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By RUSTY DENNEN
About 150 people queued up in Stafford and Spotsylvania counties over the weekend--not to buy something, but to throw it away.
Operation Medicine Cabinet went so well, organizers say, that it may be back for a return engagement next year. The program collects unneeded or expired medicine and needles so they don't end up in area landfills or waterways.
"It really exceeded our expectations," Karl Karch, a board member of Partners in Aging, the event's organizer, said yesterday.
Drive-up disposal lines, manned by volunteers and police, were set up Saturday at Stafford Hospital and Mary Washington Healthcare's Emergency & Outpatient Center in Lee's Hill in Spotsylvania.
Karch said 312 pounds of medication and 19 containers of needles were collected from 143 people in three hours.
"People were saying, 'I'm glad. I didn't know what to do with these medications.' I'm glad to get them away from [elderly] parents, so they don't take the wrong medications," Karch said, noting that the average older adult takes six or more medications.
Jennifer Reynolds, a senior program manager at Mary Washington Healthcare, said one woman brought a box full of medications belonging to a family member who had died of cancer.
"We had a person come by with a 10-by-13 Ziploc bag full of pills," she said. "You drove up, dropped off and kept on moving."
One participant drove from Woodbridge.
Stafford Hospital agreed to dispose of the needles; the medications were sent to a medical-waste company for incineration.
"I thought it was a huge success," Reynolds said. "We've had many calls asking when we're going to do it again."
Karch said the group plans to hold another such event next year, if sponsors can be lined up to cover the cost. Other sponsors of Saturday's event included Friends of the Rappahannock, Chancellor's Village, Home Instead Senior Care and Triad.
Operation Medicine Cabinet made its debut last year in New Jersey--the first large-scale collection of its kind.
There has been growing interest in proper disposal of prescription drugs and other medications in recent years to reduce the chances of unintended overdose or drug abuse, and to protect the environment.
John Tippett, executive director of Friends of the Rappahannock, said medications enter rivers and streams from sewage treatment-plant discharge.
The chemicals may be linked to endocrine disruptors in so-called "intersex" fish found in several Eastern rivers, including the Potomac. The fish have male and female characteristics.
"Science is telling us it may be related to some of the emerging contaminants" found in pharmaceuticals, personal care and veterinary products, Tippett said.
The effect of small concentrations of toxic chemicals on aquatic life, over time, is largely unknown.
Rusty Dennen: 540/374-5431
Email: rdennen@freelancestar.com
