Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer have offered a drug disposal guide but for registered customers only.
Pfizer is the first pharmaceutical company to make this resource available to health care professionals to help guide them through sometimes complex waste disposal requirements. This new, free-of-charge, online pharmaceutical disposal guide for health care providers and facilities called the “Pfizer Responsible Disposal Advisor.” but is, regrettably accessible to registered customers only. Whether that really means to those buying products from Pfizer and its subsidiaries, or is a more liberal requirement, remains to be seen. However, if Pfizer is to be compliant in the new legal framework being introduced in various States, that requires manufacturers to take responsibility for thei products, drug companies would do wise to make this more widely available as a service to all of those concerned to ensure safe disposal.
This might include hospitals and pharmacies, prescribers and dispensers, suppliers, local authorities, wastewater services,waste managers and contractors, local authorities, and end-users.
However, it is a start and all credit to Pfizer.
What does the site offer?
- Hazardous waste categories for all Pfizer products, including the codes for specific wastes classified as hazardous by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
- State regulatory information
- Information on what defines unused pharmaceuticals as hazardous
- Department of Transportation shipping descriptions
- Tips on developing a compliant hazardous pharmaceutical waste management program
Waste Wizard information found on Pfizer’s Responsible Disposal Advisor informs health care professionals whether the Pfizer drug to be disposed will be a hazardous waste based on the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulations that implement the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). In addition to any relevant waste codes, the Pfizer Responsible Disposal Advisor powered by the Waste Wizard recommends disposal options for full, partial, and empty containers, and provides US Department of Transportation shipping descriptions. Certain commonly used drugs become hazardous waste when health care facilities including pharmacies decide to discard them either because the drugs are specifically listed as hazardous by EPA or because they exhibit one or more of the characteristics of hazardous waste specified by EPA.