Mum, there’s a danger lurking in your home that you might not have even considered…
And that’s why you need to know about the RUM Project.
Did you know that over 5,000 children are hospitalised every year due to medicine poisonings in the home? Expired or unwanted medicines can be seriously harmful in the wrong hands.
Between curious little people ingesting medicines they find, or elderly confusion where an excess of products lead to mismanagement, these serious problems beg the question; why do we have old medicines hanging around?
The Return Unwanted Medicines (RUM) Project is here to urge you to take 5 minutes to clean out your cupboards, drawers and cabinets.
This simple action dramatically reduces the risks of accidental medicine poisonings, overdoses or mismanagement in your home.
Mum Central can almost guarantee 95% of you will have at least one out-of-date item which is no longer needed. The best news of all is that The RUM Project is a FREE and national service so ensuring the safety of your family is easy!
Here’s 5 reasons you should act now & return unwanted medicines to your local pharmacy:
- Ingesting expired products brings many risks including adverse reactions due to changed chemical compositions and potential bacterial growth
- Expired medicine is likely to have decreased potency
- Accident and Emergency Departments are reporting that 1 in 4 admissions of children is due to poisoning by a household item
- Saving medicine ‘just in case’ is risky and unnecessary. For example, research suggests that the full course of antibiotics is required to ensure maximum effectiveness and reduce resistance
- Elderly patients are frequently confused by the medicines they have in their home, especially when they are superseded with newer products
Getting rid of the medicines you no longer need, that are expired or were never used in full, minimises the risk of harmful incidences happening in your home.
Why is it important to dispose of medicines properly?
- Last year The RUM Project collected a staggering 700 tonnes of medicines from Australian households, potentially preventing it from finding its way into waterways and landfill
- Disposing medicines with household garbage bin still poses a risk of them ending up in the wrong hands
- Flushing down the toilet or sink has negative environmental consequences, because, most medicines after all, contain chemicals
The safest way of disposing of unwanted medicines is easy! Simply follow the 3 R’s.
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Find all medicine in your home and review them by reading the labels and checking expiry dates. Consider whether you really need them. If they are expired, un-labelled or only half the course was taken, you should definitely dispose of them!
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Put all your unwanted medicines from your home into a plastic bag or container. Remember to put them out of harm’s way until you can responsibly dispose of them.
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Take your unwanted medicines to your local pharmacy. They will put your medicines in a secure bin and dispose of them safely for you, free of charge!
Not only are you doing something positive for the environment but always remember, every packet of unwanted medicine returned is one less risk (in SO many ways) in your home!
PLUS, don’t forget if you have elderly parents they will need your assistance too! A quick sweep of their medicines will prevent confusion and minimise potential problems of ingesting expired product.
To celebrate the launch of the RUM campaign, we’ve got $3,000 in EFTPOS Gift Cards to give away!
To simply reward you for getting up to speed with RUM and embracing this important initiative, you could score 1 of 12 $250 EFTPOS gift cards. Entry is really easy too!
Simply complete the entry form below, comment on the blog per the instructions in the entry form, and you could be a winner!
PLUS, here’s how to really improve your chances of winning!
BONUS 10 ENTRIES: Take a snap of an old, expired or half-used item from your medicine cupboard that you will return to your local pharmacy. Then upload the snap into your entry form and your chances of winning are dramatically increased by 10 BONUS POINTS!!
