MANAGEMENT AND DESTINATION OF MEDICINES: INVESTIGATION ABOUT THE BEHAVIOR OF ANIMAL GUARDIANS IN A VETERINARY HOSPITAL ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

The medicines are considered indispensable tools to the restablishment of health, although these substances need to be cared for considering their storage and disposal. This search aimed to evaluate the knowledge of the animal guardians about the medicine disposal. Interviews with 290 animal guardians were carried out. Among the interviewees, 94,5% of them had dogs and 26.4% cats, 6% of them use over-the-counter medication. Those ones who store medicines at home are 77,2%, and the favorite site for 70% of them is the cabinet. The destination of these disposed medicines is the common trash in 63,7% of the cases, although, 94,5% of the interviewees know about the environmental risks caused by this practice. Among the guardians, 77.2% of them never received instructions about how to dispose the medicines waste, 80% of them think it´s right to donate the leftover medicines. It was concluded that the studied population presented a lack of information related to the right destination of the expired leftover medicine. Because of that, it is essential the design of strategies of educational actions to address the shortcomings underlined and prevent the ocurrence of possible damages to the human and animal health and to the environment.