Pharmaceutical Composition of Municipal Solid Waste in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan

摘要

Pharmaceuticals from municipal solid waste (MSW) in Kaohsiung City were sampled and analyzed in this study. The class and pharmacological nature of the discarded Pharmaceuticals collected were statistically analyzed. The composition of pharmaceuticals sampled from MSW were also analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The results suggested that majority people would dispose unused or slightly used pharmaceuticals in the original drug bags with other waste. This is why those discarded medications were found once in a big quantity rather than dispersed all over in small portions. This phenomenon may compromise sampling accuracy. When categorizing the medications based on their types, the top ten discarded medications were cardiovascular medications, diabetic medications, anti-inflammatory painkillers, and gastrointestinal medications. When the discarded medications were classified differently, the most frequently discarded medications were medications for chronic diseases, non-chronic disease medications, Chinese herbal medications, and other medications. The results suggested that medications for chronic diseases are more likely to be discarded than others. Except Chinese herbal medications, if the other discarded medications were classified pharmacologically, diabetic medications were discarded the most, followed by cardiovascular medications, anti-inflammatory painkillers, gastrointestinal medications, and others. Results from estimating the percentage of discarded medications based on the number of containers containing medications and empty containers showed that chronic disease medications accounted for the highest percentage (64%), followed by others (39%), non-chronic disease medications (32%), and Chinese herbal medications (21%). Even though Chinese herbal medications had the lowest disposal percentage, its potential disposal quantity was the highest. When the investigators estimated based on the pharmacological nature of the collected medication samples, they found that diabetic medications accounted for the highest percentage (80%), followed by cardiovascular medications (44%), gastrointestinal medications (40%), other (32%), and anti-inflammatory painkillers (27%). In contrast to previous questionnaire survey studies showing that cold medicine and anti-inflammatory painkillers accounted for the highest proportion, the present study suggested that chronic disease medications accounted for the highest percentage of discarded medications. An explanation for this discrepancy is that even though the disposal frequency of chronic disease medications was lower than that of cold medicine and anti-inflammatory painkillers, the one-time disposal quantity of chronic disease medications may be greater than that that of cold medicine and anti-inflammatory painkillers.