PharmE^® News Alert

PharmEcology® Announces a New Brand, a New Wizard, and New Waste Categories!

As pharmaceutical waste management evolves, we’re evolving too! To better serve our clients, we’ve developed the PharmE™ trademark to identify our growing line of products and services.

The PharmEcology Wizard has evolved into the PharmE™ Waste Wizard. But it’s not just the name that has changed. Our former “Risk Management” category which classified products we believe should be treated as hazardous waste due to their potential to cause harm, is now PharmE Hazardous™ waste and has expanded in scope. In most states, best management practice is to manage these items as hazardous waste even though they are not defined as such under the EPA’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

To assist Minnesota hospitals we’ve responded to state initiatives and expanded this category to include all criteria of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s Draft Preferred Option for Applying the Lethality Characteristic to Healthcare Wastes. Minnesota hospitals will be relieved to know there is now a reputable list to use to segregate MN01 waste in a cost effective manner.

Updated weekly with over 300 new products, containing over 130,000 drug items overall, the PharmE™ Waste Wizard includes all RCRA hazardous waste codes and the following PharmE Hazardous™ waste criteria:

• Formulations containing more than one P or U listed drug;
• The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Hazardous Drug Alert Appendix A;
• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Technical Manual Section 6, Chapter 2, Appendix VI: 2 -1;
• The US Department of Health and Human Services National Toxicology Program's Report on Carcinogens (11th Edition);
• Chemotherapy agents not already listed as RCRA hazardous;
• Additional drugs meeting OSHA or NIOSH criteria;
• Drugs with LD50s at or below 50mg/kg;
• Endocrine disruptors;
• Bulk powders;
• Vitamin or mineral preparations that may fail the toxicity characteristic due to chromium, selenium, or cadmium for which there is inadequate data at this time.

We have also added a new Biohazardous (Infectious) category for live attenuated vaccines, blood products, globulins, and other pharmaceuticals requiring disposal as infectious waste. These will appear under the PharmE Hazardous™ banner but with the Regulated Medical Waste disposal requirements noted.

So whether your concern is RCRA, NIOSH, OSHA, or meeting your hospital’s environmental mission, the time has never been better to take advantage of a cost effective solution to the identification and management of hazardous pharmaceutical materials and waste. Subscribe to the PharmE™ Waste Wizard or take advantage of our PharmE™ Formulary Analysis. Give us a call at 262-814-2635 or email us at info@pharmecology.com.

• Posted: February 19, 2005