"Hundreds of boxes of ibuprofen thrown into the trash can", hot search caused controversy! Doing this is dangerous——

Recently, #Hundreds of boxes of ibuprofen were thrown into the trash# #Netizens hoarded 1,000 antipyretic pills and lost all of them# became a hot search on Weibo, attracting the attention of netizens. How should expired drugs be handled? How harmful is it to discard them at will?

Hundreds of unopened boxes of ibuprofen thrown away

Recently, a netizen shared a video: a large amount of ibuprofen was found discarded in the trash can downstairs along with other medicines. These medicines were unopened, and it was conservatively estimated that there were hundreds of boxes.

Another netizen posted a photo of 1,000 tablets of antipyretic drugs he bought online, saying: "I bought them before Yang, and they arrived a long time after Yang Kang, on the 27th or 28th of the year."

In this regard, some netizens said that this is "the result of some people's irrational hoarding , which is a waste of resources." Some netizens think that this is the hoarding behavior of scalpers , which is infuriating. Some netizens also said distressedly: "Which trash can is this? I will go and collect the junk now." "Ibuprofen can still be eaten after a year of expiration, why throw it away?"

Some netizens also believed that this was a staged fake video.

Some netizens also expressed a certain degree of agreement with "hoarding": "Hoarding is like buying insurance. You don't want to waste it, but you don't want to use it either." Previously, relevant departments have repeatedly called for not blindly hoarding drugs and cracked down on high-price reselling and drug price gouging. For example, the Guangdong Provincial Drug Administration once issued a document to remind: drugs have a shelf life and certain storage conditions. Improper storage can easily deteriorate, and too much drugs stored for a long time can easily lead to waste.

Can I still take ibuprofen after it expires?

So, can expired ibuprofen be taken as usual? A pharmaceutical industry insider told China News Service that it is not recommended to take drugs after their expiration date. "Even if they are well stored, the efficacy of the drug will decrease, and expired drugs will deteriorate, mold, and other problems. Instead of curing the disease, they will harm people." She said that drugs should also be properly stored within the expiration date. "If you find that the drug is damp, moldy, cracked, or not stored in a cool place away from light as required by the drug, or not stored in a refrigerated place as required, do not take it."

Can expired medicines be thrown away at will?

In addition, expired medicines should not be discarded at will. A large amount of discarded medicines will not only waste resources, but also pollute the environment.

According to the National List of Hazardous Wastes (2021 Edition), expired medicines are classified as hazardous wastes. Carelessly discarded medicines can easily pollute soil and water bodies after decomposition, causing harm to humans, animals and plants. Some highly volatile expired medicines may also become allergens.

In addition, expired drugs may be recycled and resold by illegal vendors or illegal medical institutions after being discarded at will, which is harmful to the health of patients. In 2022, the Supreme People's Court reported a number of typical cases of solid waste pollution of the environment. Among them, a biochemical pharmaceutical company dumped and disposed of a batch of over 3 tons of expired drugs without harmless treatment. The defendant was sentenced to a maximum of ten months in prison and a fine. However, the "List of Hazardous Waste Exemption Management" in the appendix of the "National List of Hazardous Wastes" also clearly states that waste drugs generated in daily family life or in activities that provide services for daily life are hazardous wastes in domestic waste. As long as they are not collected in a centralized manner, the above-mentioned waste drugs may not be managed as hazardous wastes, but as domestic waste. In 2019, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and other departments issued a document to fully launch the classification of domestic waste in cities at the prefecture level and above across the country. According to the classification, "waste drugs and their packaging" are hazardous wastes, which are scattered and discarded with domestic waste and recycled in a classified manner.

Previously, the State Food and Drug Administration responded to a question from netizens about "how to deal with expired drugs" and said that if expired drugs at home are not collected in a classified manner, the drug packaging can be destroyed and then discarded with household waste and recycled in a classified manner, which is relatively less risky. If expired drugs at home are sent to regular recycling points for unified recycling, they need to be centrally disposed of to reduce harm to the environment.

Source: Beijing Daily WeChat Official Account