In 2019, almost 50,000 people in the United States died from an opioid overdose and 21 to 29 percent of people who were prescribed opioids misused them. Improper disposal or accumulation of unused medication in the home contributes to accidental consumption and abuse. Universal methods and practices for disposal of unused opioid medications are needed to address this growing public health crisis. Unused medications are often flushed; however, this leads to contamination of wastewater streams which is a public health concern. Medication drop-points at local police departments are underutilized and disposal in public trash pick-up allows for easy recovery of medications. Current commercially available disposal kits use activated charcoal to dissolve unused medication and adsorb active ingredients, but these are cost prohibitive to meet public need. This project was designed to create an inexpensive method for at-home opioid disposal using household materials. As a proxy for a fast-acting opioid, Chlorpheniramine maleate tablets were dissolved in water with different household additives with varying temperature, agitation, and concentration. Addition of vinegar, 5% OxiClean, or dish soap was advantageous and led to tablet dissolution in ~3 minutes. Optimized conditions were used to dissolve batches of 30 tablets with high reproducibility. This simple method can be used in the home to dissolve unused opioids, which can then be absorbed by paper towels and disposed of in the trash in a discreet and unrecoverable form.

Evaluating disposal methods for unused opioids using household materials

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.