O descarte domiciliar de medicamentos pela população de Colatina/ES

The easy access to drug and the deliberate growth of consumption allowed the storage of large quantities of drug at home, contributing to the expiration, by disuse, of many drug acquired due to some acute affection and bringing the need to discard the expired drugs. However, when carried out in ordinary waste or sewage they contaminate water and soil and are practically impossible to dispose of, in common filtration and treatment processes. Questionnaires were randomly applied in the Colatina town and the data were analyzed in order to verify the most common errors regarding the discard of the drugs and to which characteristics of the population these were associated. It was verified that 100% of the interviewees had medications at home. There was also a lack of knowledge about the National Solid Waste Policy or any information about the appropriate forms of drug disposal. 83% of the participants waste it in the common waste, and more than half never thought of the problems caused by this form of waste. Regarding environmental responsibility, 25% of respondents claimed to have never thought about the environmental problems that this practice can generate. In view of the results presented, it is possible to extract two main information: the lack of knowledge of the population about the problem caused by improper disposal of drug and their high discard rate inappropriately, therefore, intervention actions are necessary to reverse the situation.