Incinerator keeps drugs out of the water supply
Posted on Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Our drug incinerator program, Pyromed, is going great guns. We have burned more than 550 pounds of drugs since March of this year.
For those of you who are not aware of the program, it works like this You all have expired, unused, unneeded prescription drugs in your medicine cabinets and homes. You also have some overthe-counter medications that fall into this nolonger-needed or expired drugs category.
The problem is what to do with them. It's no longer acceptable to just throw them out with the trash or flush them down the toilet.
Pyromed gives you a fast and easy solution to dispose of these items.
Just package them up in a plastic bag and bring them to the Bella Vista Po lice Department. Near the front door, there is a white, mailbox-looking thing - just put the medications in there.
Once or twice a week, we empty the box, and every other week, we burn the drugs. What is left after the burn is environmentally safe, so no worries about ground or water contamination. When you bring items to the office, leave them in their original containers. There is no need to take the labels off the plastic or glass bottles. So, look around your house and medicine cabinets, and bring us those drugs for safe disposal.
• • • Here is another item you need to consider. It's almost midsummer, and we are all out in our yards cleaning, cutting, gardening - you name it. I bet when you're doing these yard jobs, your garage door is up. (How many of you leave your garage doors up when you are home and inside ?) While you're busy in the yard or out back, who is keeping track of what's happening in your garage ? In most cases you're no where near it, and someone could come off the street and help themselves to whatever is in there. It's happened here before. While you're busy working or in the house, someone is shopping in your garage. Think about it. It's a pain to keep the garage door closed all the time, even if you are around, but maybe better safe than sorry. It's also a good way to keep the snakes in the yard instead of in the house. Till next time !
• • • Jim Wozniak is chief of the Bella Vista Police Department.
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