This Saturday, there are two ways you can help keep our waters clean. Participate in the annual Shoreline Cleanup, from 9am to noon, and then head over to San Pablo Park to dispose of your prescription medications.
Home storage of prescription medications is a serious public safety issue, leading to accidental poisoning, overdose, theft and abuse. Although flushing some dangerous drugs is preferable to the risk of abuse or accidental overdose, there are environmental costs: recent studies by the Environmental Protection Agency have detected pharmaceutical drugs in our nation’s water supply.
Here’s an opportunity to clean out your medicine cabinet for free! The National Take-Back Initiative, sponsored by the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency, allows for safe and anonymous disposal of all unused, unneeded, and expired prescription medications, especially those that may not be accepted back by pharmacies.
On September 25th, City of Berkeley and LifeLong Medical Care are inviting residents to bring unused, unneeded, and expired medication to San Pablo Park (no needles or liquids). You do not need to be a Berkeley resident, or provide any other kind of identification.
Where: San Pablo Park, 2800 Park St. in Berkeley (at Russell St.)
Date: Saturday, September 25, 2010
Time: 10am–2pm
Cost: Free!
The National Take-Back Initiative is a project of the Drug Enforcement Agency in conjunction with the City of Berkeley Health Department, Berkeley Police Department and LifeLong Medical Care. For more information regarding types of medication and collection sites check www.dea.gov or call BPD at (510) 981-5806. [Photo by Jack Hynes]
