From April 2024 to March 2025, a group of students led by Ph.D., Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Public Health of the NCJSC “SMU” Khismetova Z.A. is implementing a pilot startup project on the topic: “Implementing behavioral interventions to reduce inappropriate drug disposal.” The project is aimed at solving an important environmental and medical problem related to the improper disposal of medicines.

At the first stage of the project, the team conducted a study among the population to identify the main causes of improper disposal. Among them:

• Lack of information on safe disposal methods.
• The lack of available reception points for expired and unnecessary medicines.
• Insufficient awareness of the environmental and health consequences.

At the second stage, collection points for medicines were organized. Special containers for the collection of expired medicines were installed at several key points, which made it possible to collect more than 30 kg of expired medicines from the population.

At the moment, statistical processing of the data of the study results is underway.

Follow the further updates and the results of the project on the official resources.