What should I do with my expired Epi-Pens?

March 13, 2009 8:36 AM

What should I do with my expired Epi-Pens?

None of the pharmacies around me will take them back, nor will my GP. These aren't used, they're just REALLY expired.

I don't want to do a craft project or something for the lulz, I just want to dispose of them--somehow--in a safe manner.

Thoughts?

posted by misanthropicsarah to grab bag (11 comments total)

This eHow article will probably help you.
posted by metalheart at 8:42 AM on March 13

Ask your local pharmacist(how to dispose of them...not to take them back). I knew this pharmacist who had ALL sorts of different manners of disposing of expired drugs.

"OH NO...never flush those down the toilet".

"You want to smash them, and bury it".

"Mix in with motor oil, and turn it in to motor oil recycling"

Wierd stuff.

OR...you can just call up the company who makes them and ask them how you dispose of them.


OR...you can go to your local doctor's office/hospital and ask to have these put in the biohazard boxes.
posted by hal_c_on at 8:43 AM on March 13 [1 favorite]

Doctor's offices and labs may be reluctant to accept these, as disposal of biohazardous material is a major expense for them. I have "sharps" to dispose of on a regular basis and, in my state, it is acceptable to place them in a rigid, leakproof plastic container and place them in the regular trash (an old 2L plastic soda bottle is perfect for this). The website safeneedledisposal.org (got to learn how to do the linky thing) addresses state by state policies and even lists some locations where agencies in individual states may accept "sharps" from the public.
posted by SweetTeaAndABiscuit at 9:05 AM on March 13 [1 favorite]

This was in the link you posted....

"If unused, the EpiPen should be discarded by returning it to a local pharmacy or hospital for safe disposal. "
posted by zeoslap at 9:27 AM on March 13 [1 favorite]

Sometimes hospital bathrooms have sharps disposal containers, for people who inject insulin, etc. Probably not the ideal option, but if you can't find anywhere else...
posted by greatgefilte at 11:44 AM on March 13

Take them to the local fire station and ask the paramedics to drop them in their sharps container.
posted by _Mona_ at 11:57 AM on March 13

I save our expired ones. I figure, if my kids/strangers etc need a 3rd or 4th one because we are remote, and cannot get to a hospital / ambulance etc, how bad (worsen the situation) can an expired dose of adrenalin be in that scenario??
posted by dripped at 12:14 PM on March 13

Send them to Cuba?
Give them to friends to keep at the cottage or hunting lodge in case of a remote emergency?
posted by pseudostrabismus at 12:32 PM on March 13

Oops, I take it back. The org I linked to above doesn't use expired medication- although I'm pretty sure there are organizations that do.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 12:56 PM on March 13

I figure, if my kids/strangers etc need a 3rd or 4th one because we are remote, and cannot get to a hospital / ambulance etc, how bad (worsen the situation) can an expired dose of adrenalin be in that scenario??

Really bad. Oxidized adrenaline turns into adrenochrome.
In Diet & Neurotoxins, by Gabriel Cousens, MD (2000):

Connection To Schizophrenia
For example, two of these metabolic neurotoxins--adrenolutin and adrenochrome--breakdown products from the body's own epinephrine. Both are associated with biochemically based schizophrenia. Adrenochrome is a hallucinogen which also inhibits nerve cell transmission. If the body is making an excess of adrenochrome, from either stress or a poor biochemical ability to break it down into harmless by-products, we have the potential for brain dysfunction.
posted by aquafortis at 2:58 PM on March 13

Expired medications, especially those that are still in the original intact sterile packaging, are vanishingly unlikely to have become toxic. A far more likely result of using an expired medication is that it may not work as well as it ought to.

Like pseudostrabismus[1] said, many medical missions and other medically-oriented charities accept donations of expired medications (provided they're still in a sealed package) and take them to developing countries, where a medication that won't work as well as it ought to is still way better than nothing at all.

[1] Best username ever!
posted by jesourie at 5:44 PM on March 13