International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology | July 2020 | Vol 9 | Issue 7 Page 1002 International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology Bataduwaarachchi VR et al. Int J Basic Clin Pharmacol. 2020 Jul;9(7):1002-1006 http://www.ijbcp.com pISSN 2319-2003 | eISSN 2279-0780 Original Research Article A survey on the knowledge, perceptions and practices regarding unwanted medicine disposal among pharmacists in Sri Lanka Vipula R. Bataduwaarachchi*, Chamari L. Weerarathna, A. Paherathy, Dinuka S. Warapitiya, Mythili Sivapathasundaram, Thilini N. Wickramarathna, I. U. Haputhanthrige, Maheshi D. Wijayabandara, T. Rameshkumar INTRODUCTION Unwanted medicines (UM) are defined as expired, unused, damaged or contaminated pharmaceutical products which are no longer required. 1 Improper disposal of UM leads to many health and environmental hazards such as poisoning, air pollution, contamination of water and food sources etc. The presence of pharmaceutical products in the environment has been confirmed by ecological studies worldwide. 2 The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that UM should always be considered as pharmaceutical waste and should never be utilised for humans and animals. 3 Most of the Western countries have developed their own guidelines on UM disposal. In Sweden, there is a system to return unused medicine to pharmacies from the public, Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka Received: 10 February 2020 Revised: 29 April 2020 Accepted: 30 April 2020 *Correspondence: Dr. Vipula R. Bataduwaarachchi, Email: vipbat7@yahoo.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT Background: Unwanted medicines are defined as expired, unused, damaged or contaminated pharmaceutical products. Improper disposal of unwanted medicines leads to many health and environmental hazards. The World Health Organisation recommends that unwanted medicines should always be disposed properly. The main objective of this study was to assess the knowledge, practices and perceptions on the disposal of unwanted medicines among pharmacists in Sri Lanka. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among pharmacists in 40 private retail pharmacies in the Northern, Eastern and the Western provinces within a period of three months. The pharmacies were selected via stratified randomised sampling in each district. The most experienced pharmacist in each pharmacy was recruited for data collection. A pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire was used. The ethics approval was obtained (Ref: EC-12- 190). The data was represented using simple descriptive statistics. Results: The data was collected from 40 pharmacies. Among the pharmacists, 65% were males. The majority answered that burning and landfill as the most appropriate methods of disposal for most of the types of medicinal waste. A significant number of pharmacists were not aware about the method of disposal for anti-infective agents and anti-neoplastic agents. The majority perceived the seriousness of environmental damage caused by disposal via trash or sink. A majority was not agreeing to have pharmacies as collecting centers for unwanted medicines. A discrepancy between the pharmacists’ perceptions and the practices was observed. Conclusions: The level of knowledge, practices and perceptions among pharmacists on unwanted medicines disposal was substandard and needs attention. Keywords: Medication waste disposal, Pharmaceutical waste, Unwanted medicines DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2319-2003.ijbcp20202930