EPA Criticized For Pharmaceutical Waste Proposal

Date: May 4, 2009

Source: News Room

EPA is facing criticism over its proposal to ease pharmaceutical waste regulations, with state regulators, industry groups and public water treatment authorities all raising concerns that the proposal will not be effective in achieving the agency's stated goals of increasing the proper disposal of pharmaceutical wastes and promoting pharmaceutical take-back programs. Criticism stems from concerns that the agency's proposal to add pharmaceuticals to the list of universal wastes under its Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations will be rendered moot if other federal agencies, especially the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), do not similarly revise their own regulations. Currently, reverse distributors cannot accept most pharmaceutical wastes generated outside the pharmacy. The Environmental Technology Council (ETC), said of EPA's failure to "coordinate with DEA, the proposed rule attempts to ignore this elephant in the room." Nevertheless, the proposal attemptsto simplify the management of RCRA hazardous pharmaceutical wastes and to make it easier for consumers to properly dispose these wastes through available take-back programs rather than flush them into the environment.

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