How ignorant can companies be?

We were watching TV yesterday and saw an ad for Duragesic, and fentanyl patch for pain. One of the warnings was that you should dispose of the patch by folding it into and flushing it down the toilet I'm serious! Here's the company website that says exactly that;

DURAGESIC® (fentanyl transdermal system) CII Pain Patch

If it's much too dangerous to leave where anyone, or any animal, can get to it, why in the world would you flush it? Don't they know that, if you have a septic system, it goes into the ground water and, if you're on public sewer, it will eventually go into the streams, rivers and oceans?

OK, big pharma is killing us financially and also trying to destroy the planet too.

 

Why the hell does a product like that exist in the first place

 

Cushions the pain in your ass...

 

Cancer.

 

in Canada many pharmacies wont refill a script without the return of the used patches

 

hmmm maybe they want to solve rat problems in the sewers, killing two probles with one patch

 

I took a pharmacology class once, I bought a used book that was a year out of date and still advised the safest way to dispose of meds was by flushing them. The newer edition of the book that was taught in class advised to return them to the pharmacy for safe disposal. This was in...2012 or 2013 I think. So it's a relatively new consensus that meds should not be flushed...something that seems like common sense to me though

 

pharmacy probably flushes them down their toilet...

 

I would not doubt it lol

Poor fishies..getting fuuucked up

 

This reminds me of my pathology textbook.
It started with something like: it is unreasonable to expect humans to act reasonable.
I often think of that.

 

Chicken?

 

The most reasonable thing i've heard all day

 

You didn't watch Breaking bad?

 

Nah. One day I will. Maybe

 

Then i will not explain :-D

 

Duragesic patches use active Fentanyl that is absorbed through the skin to provide an even dosage. The chemical composition is C(22)H(28)N(2)O. This clearly shows that they contain no accumulative or poisonous elements.

Pain killers by their very nature break down into the body, leaving no harmful residue, so their is no risk to animal life from microscopic quantities and I cannot imagine any residue surviving sewage treatment for more than a few hours
.
Since patches that rely on skin absorption contain many time the safe oral dosage, leaving them lying around where they could end up being chewed by children or animals would therefore be very dangerous though.

Regarding the latest policy of returning used patches, I assume that the water authorities have complained about flushing. But this is simply that the patches themselves are not biodegradable in sewage treatment and would clog filters as well as damaging pumps.

A few years ago, some bright idiot working in fire safety here in London, suggested flushing the contents of ashtrays before going to bed. It was calculated that the filters would completely wreck the sewage systems within a few months.
It is actually illegal to flush a cigarette in the UK, but the few that do get flushed cause endless problems, along with the 'wet wipes'.

 

And Fentanyl is the only option for that?

Stuff should be banned outright

 

Is there anything as potent for something like bone cancer? I honestly have no idea.

 

The fentanyl that people are dying from is not diverted from legal supply, it is made in Chinese laboratories and smuggled in to Western countries.

Banning pharmaceutical fentanyl would do nothing to stop the crisis, and might make it worse by forcing people currently using fentanyl patches to go to the street to find something strong enough.