Unwanted Medicines and Human Health

Unwanted pharmaceuticals can adversely affect human health when they are improperly ingested. They can also work their way into the environment, where they can indirectly impact people’s health.

Non-Medical Uses of Pharmaceuticals

Storing unwanted medicines in the home increases the risk that these drugs may be used by young people for non-medical reasons. A 2008 report from the Office of National Drug Control Policy notes that prescription medicines are the drug of choice among 12- and 13-year olds, and pain relievers like OxyContin and Vicodin are the drugs most commonly abused. The 2008 Washington Healthy Youth Survey found that almost ten percent of 10th graders and 12 percent of 12th graders had used opiate pain killers to “get high” in the previous 30 days.

According to a 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, more than half the people using prescription drugs for nonmedical reasons obtained them from a friend or relative for free.

Emergency department reports indicate that 3,529 visits in 2006 were caused by prescription medications (opiates). Over half of those (54 percent) were cases of drug abuse.

Accidental Poisonings

A Washington State Department of Health report on Poisoning and Drug Overdose notes that accidental poisonings in Washington are growing dramatically (395 percent since 1990), and 85 percent of the poisoning deaths were caused by medicines.

According to the 2004 Washington State Childhood Injury Prevention report on poisoning, a third of poisoning deaths among Washington children are due to someone else’s prescription medication, and 26 percent of the poisoning deaths are caused by over-the-counter medications. The second leading cause of injury hospitalization for Washington children (age 0 – 17 years) is poisonings, and 15 – 17 year olds had the highest injury rates from poisoning.

More than half of the exposure calls reported by the Washington Poison Center in 2008 involved children under six, and almost half of these children were poisoned by medicines. The elderly are also at risk: in 2007, over 7,000 calls to the Poison Center were from the older adults and two-thirds of these involved medications.

Pharmaceuticals, the Environment and Human Health

Although the effect of pharmaceuticals in the environment on human health is not precisely known, scientists are beginning to study this. Exposing human embryonic cells in a lab to mixtures of drugs at concentrations similar to those found in the environment resulted in up to a 30 percent decrease in cell proliferation. And because pharmaceuticals in the environment are found in mixtures with other pharmaceuticals, the toxicity may be greater than if each chemical occurred alone.

Pomati, F., Castiglioni, S., Zuccato, E., Fanelli, R., Vigetti, D., Rossetti, C., et al. (2006). Effects of a complex mixture of therapeutic drugs at environmental levels on human embryonic cells. Environmental Science & Technology, 40 (0013-936; 7), 2442-2447.