Manejo de los medicamentos veterinarios caducos en la zona metropolitana del valle de méxico

In Mexico, veterinary expired medications are classified as hazardous waste according to the Mexican Official Standard NOM-052-SEMARNAT-2005. Nevertheless, a void in the assignation of responsibility regarding the monitoring and fulfillment of regulations distorts the procedures comprising their managing and final disposal, since medications are still disposed in the garbage or flushed down the toilet or sink. The aim of this study was to know the current situation of the management of these residues in the Metropolitan Zone of Mexico City (MZMC). A survey was conducted including 162 managers of veterinary pharmacies, of which 112 agreed to collaborate. Our findings revealed that more than 95% of the respondents are conscious that their establishments generate diverse types of hazardous waste (including expired medications) and claim that some veterinary medications are expired in their pharmacies. Although 64.3% of the respondents reported they use the service of companies specialized in the removal and/or destruction of expired veterinary medications in the MZMC, there does not exist an interest to corroborate if such enterprises operate in accordance to regulations, if they give a final disposition adapted to these kind of waste or even to know the management way of waste, since 95% of the companies named by the respondents are not registered nor authorized by the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources of Mexico. From this study, it is concluded that there are mechanisms in Mexico for the correct environmental management of pharmaceutical waste; however, the absence of specific policies for veterinary expired medications makes management, treatment and/or disposal methods inadequate.