What pharmaceutical drugs are considered hazardous waste?
There are approximately 31 commercial chemical products listed on RCRAs P- and U-lists that have pharmaceutical uses. As the P- and U-lists are based on chemical designations, this number does not completely represent the total number of brand name pharmaceuticals that may actually be listed hazardous wastes. For example, the following chemotherapy drugs, CTX, Cytotoxan, Neosar and Procytox, are U058 (cyclophosamide). In addition, waste pharmaceuticals may also be hazardous because they exhibit one or more of the four characteristics of hazardous waste: ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity and toxicity. Characteristic pharmaceutical wastes include those that exhibit the ignitability characteristic, such as solutions containing more than 24% alcohol. An example of a pharmaceutical that may exhibit the reactivity characteristic is nitroglycerine. Pharmaceuticals exhibiting the corrosivity characteristic are generally limited to compounding chemicals, including strong acids, such as glac
