‘PROUD’ bins to collect unsed drugs to be set up

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Drug Control Department has decided to launch the phase II of PROUD (Programme on Removal of Unused Drugs) in the wake of growing environment pollution being posed by unused drugs in the state.

According to statistics, around 5 per cent of the total medicine being sold in the state is discarded and dumped in water bodies or buried, causing very serious environment issues.

The Kerala State Drug Control Department, along with All Kerala Chemists and Druggists’ Association (AKCDA), had launched PROUD in April. On the World Environment Day on Wednesday, the authorities are planning to install around 25 more special collection bins at three busy public spots in the state capital — near Secretariat, Vellayambalam and General Hospital.

State Drug Controller Ravi S. Menon said that around 30 safe drug collection bins were introduced at Medical College Hospital (MCH) and the response was immense. “Unused medicines are aplenty at every household and people have no idea how to dispose it. Discarded medicine is biomedical waste and it should be disposed scientifically. The anti-microbes and other elements in the medicine can pose serious environment issues,” said Mr Ravi Menon.

District secretary of AKCDA Jayanarayanan Thampy said that they were able to collect nearly 2-tonne unused medicine from the bins at MCH. “Creating awareness is the only way out and we decided to launch phase II because of the immense response we got since the launch of the initiative. Collecting the unused medicine from the bin is a major challenge being faced by us. We have placed a proposal before the state government to get the service of Kudumbasree Mission,” said Mr Thampy.  

He said that currently, they are depending on private service providers to get the job done.