The City of Arlington Wants Your Unused Drugs

Got unused pharmaceuticals?

Many people don’t know that every time they get a fresh glass of water from the sink, they could also be imbibing hydrocodone, oxycotin and prozac.

The City of Arlington is trying to keep the water supply clean with a good old-fashioned unused pharmaceutical collection event on Saturday. People can clean out their medicine cabinets and bring the drugs and their containers to have them disposed of properly by Arlington Water Utilities.

However, it is not a needle collection event, so don’t bring those.

The goal is to stop people from flushing them or putting them in the garbage disposal.

According to a 2008 Associated Press report on drinking water purity, the city of Arlington did test positive for a pharmaceutical, but would not disclose the type, citing Sept. 11, 2001, security concerns. The same report found that pharmaceuticals reside in the drinking water of over 46 million Americans in two dozen major metropolitan areas. The federal government has no regulations currently for prescriptions in drinking water.

The event takes place 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., or until capacity is reached, at the Water Utilities North Service Center at 200 North Cooper Street.

Holly LaFon has written and worked for various local publications including D Magazine and Examiner.

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