title: Practices of pharmaceutical waste generation and discarding in households across Portugal.
abstract: This work is the first nationwide study in Portugal on pharmaceutical waste generated at households, exploring people's attitudes and risk perception. The waste audit was carried out from September to November 2014, targeting pharmaceutical products kept by a sample of families (n = 244). This campaign was an assignment of VALORMED, the non-profit association that manages waste and packaging from expired and unused pharmaceutical products collected by the pharmacies. On average, each household kept at home 1097 g of pharmaceutical products, of which 20% were in use, 72% were not in use, and 8% were mostly expired products ready to discard. Face-to-face interviews with householders showed that 69% of the respondents claimed returning pharmaceutical waste to the local pharmacy. However, this figure is overrated, probably owing to a possible 'good answer' effect. The barriers identified to proper disposal were mainly established routines and lack of close disposal points. This study also provides an insight into the Portuguese awareness and daily practices concerning pharmaceutical waste, which is the cornerstone of any future strategy to reduce the release of active pharmaceutical ingredients into ecosystems.
authors.affiliation: Research Centre for Natural Resources, Environment and Society, Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal Materials and Ceramic Engineering Department, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal celia@esac.pt.
authors.forename: Celia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dias-Ferreira
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal CE3C - Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (FCUL), Portugal.
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Valente
authors.affiliation: ECOGESTUS, Figueira da Foz, Portugal.
authors.forename: João
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vaz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D005190:Family; D005191:Family Characteristics; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010465:Perception; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D010604:Pharmacy; D011174:Portugal; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D018505:Waste Management / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations
keywords: Pharmaceutical waste; active pharmaceutical ingredients; disposal; environmental risk perception; pharmaceutical residues; take-back system; unused medicines