Health care facilities, including “hospitals, nursing homes, residential health-care facilities, home health care agencies, hospice programs operating in this state, institutions, facilities, or agencies that provide services to persons with mental health illnesses or developmental disabilities” would be prohibited from flushing unused medication down toilets and sinks, under a bill before the Environment Committee. The legislation, Senate Bill 88, is aimed at intercepting medications from sewage treatment facilities, septic systems and Long Island Sound. It will be subject to a public hearing Wednesday at 11 ‘o’clock in Room 1-C of the Legislative Office Building.
The bill would require health-care institutions to develop plans for proper disposal by January of next year, while the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, along with the Division of State Police within the Department of Emergency Management and Public Protection, the Connecticut Pharmacists Association and the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association, would develop a program for the collection of unwanted pharmaceuticals. It would require secure collection boxes in local police headquarters and State Police barracks for 24-hour drop-offs, no questions asked. The material would eventually get tranferred to licensed biomedical waste treatment facilities. A public awareness program would accompany the effort.