Ghana Workshop Warns of Environmental Dangers Related to Fake Drug Disposal
One of Ghana’s ministries recently held a workshop regarding the possibility of bodies of water being contaminated by counterfeit drugs.
The Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology held the workshop, titled “Drugs and the Environment: The Development Country Perspective,” as part of the 10th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Pharmacovigilance (ISoP), according to the Ghana News Agency.
Sherry Ayittey, the environment, science and technology minister, said that when she started investigating the potential contamination of bodies of water in the country she was surprised that they could be tainted by counterfeit medicines.
“I never considered that water bodies could be contaminated by drugs,” she said, reports the news source.
Specifically, the workshop focused on an oft overlooked threat from counterfeit drugs: that the disposal of these illicit products can contaminate a country’s water supply if it is not handled properly.
Ayittey said that while it is vital for governments to make efforts to capture and prosecute those who manufacture, trade and sell counterfeit drugs it is also important to make sure that once phony medication is seized that it is disposed of in an environmentally sound and proper manner.
“Everyone knows these products are bad in the first place,” she said during the workshop.