Lack of consumer awareness

Welcome to PD’s weekly comment feature. This week’s contributor is Toni Riley, Community Pharmacist and Project Manager of National Return of Unwanted Medicines.

A GENERAL Population Survey conducted by Griffith University in 2016, brought to light that less than 20% of those surveyed had heard of the RUM project – an alarming statistic and the basis for the current public awareness campaign. 60% of the participants had unwanted medicines in their homes, and a quarter of these medicines had already expired. Most people were keeping these unwanted medicines “just in case”, while another significant group felt it was a waste of money to dispose of them. It was also concerning that two thirds of the participants were throwing unwanted medicines into the household garbage; the remaining group felt it was safe to pour them down the drain or flush them in the toilet. They did not believe that there was any likely environmental impact. Most participants, after having been told about the RUM project planned to take all unwanted medicines to their local pharmacy for disposal from then on. Consumers generally felt they needed and wanted to be told about the RUM project and believed that the community pharmacist was the best placed health care professional to deliver this message. Visit the RUM website (www.returnmed.com.au) for further information about available resources.