DETERMINING PHARMACEUTICAL WASTE GENERATION CAPACITY IN ISTANBUL AND THE HABITS RELATING TO PHARMACEUTICAL WASTE DISPOSAL

Abstract

It has been known today that the increase in medicine consumption has been causing certain environmental and economic problems. To solve these problems, it is useful to know the amount of waste medicine generation and the volunteerism of users in removing waste medicines. In this study, habits of people living in Istanbul relating to the use of medicine and pharmaceutical waste generation and their willingness to the efforts aiming reducing pharmaceutical waste, which might accordingly be generated, as soon as it has emerged. As a result of the survey, drug usage was determined to be 6.14 boxes per year per person, while unused drugs were found to be very high at an annual average of 5.40 boxes. 60% of unused medicines were discarded while 24% of these were stored at home and only 7.7% were returned to pharmacies.