ANÁLISE DO CONHECIMENTO DA POPULAÇÃO SOBRE DESCARTE DE MEDICAMENTOS EM BELO HORIZONTE - MINAS GERAIS

Medicine is technically obtained or prepared pharmaceutical product with prophylactic, curative, palliative or diagnostic purposes. Random disposal of expired medications may result in extremely relevant environmental impacts. The existence of this type of waste can lead to adverse reactions in aquatic and terrestrial beings. The aim of this study was to evaluate the process of disposing of drugs by the population of the city of Belo Horizonte / MG. A quantitative descriptive research by applying a structured questionnaire to 400 respondents were randomly selected in April 2014. It was observed that 95% of respondents have drugs at home, 52% discard expired products into the environment and 32% in the toilet, 82% do not know how to properly dispose of medications, 93% believe that the disposal may cause environmental problems 87% no information about this subject. It is noticed that the lack of public information about the correct way to dispose of medicines and absence of specific legislation for the collection of these products contributes to the improper disposal of medicines, causing damage to the environment and human health itself.