News
U-M College of Pharmacy hosts Safe
Medicine Disposal event
PHOTO
CAMPUS LIFE
CAROLINE WANG
Daily Staff Reporter
JARETT ORR/Daily
Hash Bash attendee plays the trumpet on the Diag Saturday afternoon.
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Multiple 100-gallon bins filled with unused, expired medication to be disposed responsibly
The University of Michigan
College of Pharmacy hosted a
Safe Medication Disposal event
on Tuesday, which collected and
disposed of unused or expired
medications in an environmentally
friendly
way
to
protect
the
ecosystem. This event was led
by two student organizations
within the College of Pharmacy:
American
Pharmacists
Association – Academy of Student
Pharmacists and Phi Delta Chi, a
professional pharmacy fraternity
founded in Ann Arbor.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
the event was put on pause in
the 2020-2021 school year. Last
semester’s event collected 541
bottles of medication. Drop-off
sites were located on Ingalls Mall
and inside the University Hospital
complex People could either drive
or walk up to the organizers
to drop off their medications.
Volunteers sorted the medications
into different categories such as
capsules, tablets and controlled
substances before sending them
off to disposal.
Just two hours into the event,
several
100-gallon
bins
were
already filled with medications
and volunteers from the College
of Pharmacy worked together to
efficiently sort and dispose of
the waste. Pharmacy student
Brendan Veit was among the
student volunteers at the Ingalls
Mall location. He said the goal of
this event was to educate people
on the importance of proper
medical disposal.
“Some
people
don’t
understand how much of an
impact it has on the ecosystem
when medications are thrown
away or flushed down the toilet,”
Veit said. “Taking medications
out of landfills and disposing of
them properly makes it so that
there’s no real chance of anyone
misusing the medication.”
The
University
follows
the
Environmental
Protection
Agency’s suggestion of incinerating
collected medicine by sending
the collected medications to Drug
& Laboratory, Inc. Drugs that
cannot be incinerated are sent to
chemically-secure landfills.
The
Food
and
Drug
Administration
offers
a
list
of medications that are safe
to flush and provides various
ways to dispose of other types
of medication safely at home to
prevent
controlled
substance
abuse and the contamination
of local waterways. The Safe
Medication Disposal event aimed
to reduce the harmful effects of
improper disposal of medication.
Nancy Mason, who retired as
dean at the College of Pharmacy
in 2020 and is now an emerita
clinical professor of pharmacy,
created the safe disposal project
with other faculty members in
2014. She said the best way to
combat medicine ending up in
landfills and water supplies.
“These
kinds
of
events
are the best way to dispose
of medications because they
all get incinerated and don’t
get into landfills and water
supplies,” Mason said. “Getting
medications out of the house
when they are no longer useful
is
important
for
controlled
substance
diversion
and
(reducing) poisonings.”
Emily Nguyen is a second year
PharmD candidate and one of
the organizers of the event. She
discussed the importance of safe
medication disposal to protect
the environment.
“Certain
medication,
when
you dispose of it incorrectly, can
get into the water,” Nguyen said.
“It is a bit more difficult to clean
the water, and that is the main
reason why we want to dispose of
it in a proper way.”
Daily Staff Reporter Caroline
Wang can be reached at wangca@
umich.edu. Daily News Contributor
Lena McDonough can be reached at
lenarose@umich.edu.
Iraqi Student Association invites
UMich campus community to a night of
Chai & Chobi
RONI KANE
Daily News Editor
Over 100 attendees gather at Rackham in celebration of dance, food and culture
Light from the chandeliers
in the Rackham Assembly Hall
reflected
off
the
bejeweled
djellaba
dresses
worn
by
members of the Iraqi Student
Association
(ISA)
as
they
hosted their third annual Chai
& Chobi: Iraqi Culture Night on
Wednesday. Over 100 members
of the campus community came
together at the event to explore
Iraqi culture through food, dance
and education.
After members of ISA greeted
attendees
in
English,
Farsi,
Chaldean, Hebrew, Turkish and
Kurdish — which are some of the
languages
spoken
throughout
Iraq — Public Health senior
Marwa Khalil, ISA president,
highlighted
the
importance
of gathering to celebrate the
diversity of the country. Khalil
said
the
media
sometimes
overshadows the beauty of Iraqi
culture with political conflict in
the region.
“Tonight’s goal is to highlight
the beauty of Iraq that so many
current narratives do not share,”
Khalil said. “Iraq is so often seen
as only a war zone … but it’s so
much more than that, and that’s
what we want to showcase.”
Two
years
ago,
ISA
held
the first Chai & Chobi night in
the
Rackham
Assembly
Hall
with a Small Grant from the
Barger
Leadership
Institute
(BLI) — a student and faculty-
run organization within LSA
that awards funding to student
projects that will benefit the
campus community.
LSA
senior
Diana
Ramo,
ISA treasurer, was in charge of
fundraising for the event and
purchasing the costumes, food
and supplies. According to Ramo,
BLI is no longer involved with
the event, so she and other ISA
members worked to find other
sources of funding. After having
attended the in-person event in
2020, Ramo told The Michigan
Daily it was fulfilling to bring
everything full circle and treat
the campus community to Chai &
Chobi once again.
“I loved (Chai & Chobi) as an
attendee and so getting to be
involved with the planning and
the dance (performance) and
everything was a really rewarding
experience,” Ramo said.
— pronounced “shay” and
often transliterated to “chai” in
English — is the Arabic word for
tea. In Iraq, chai is often served
at events and is one of the most
important
hot
beverages
in
Iraqi culture. To commemorate
this
tradition,
attendees
had
the opportunity to drink Iraqi
chai while enjoying handmade
baklava, hummus and other Iraqi
foods and pastries.
Business
junior
Daniella
Sultani said she came to the event
with friends to immerse herself
in the sights, sounds and flavors
of Iraqi culture.
“We wanted to try the delicious
chai,” Sultani said. “Trying the
Iraqi sweets has been super fun
and … so has seeing all of the
culture and outfits and music
come together.”
Sultani and LSA senior Hamsa
Ezzi are also both members of
the Arabesque Dance Troupe,
a
campus
organization
that
has done collaborative dance
performances with ISA and other
cultural organizations in the
past. Though she was familiar
with some of the traditional Iraqi
dances from her experience with
Arabesque, Ezzi said watching
ISA members dance at the event
was an enjoyable way to spend
the evening.
“This is my first time attending
a Chai & Chobi,” Ezzi said. “The
performances have been really
exciting.”
According to Ramo, “Chobi” is
the national dance of Iraq and is
often performed at public events
in the country. It is performed
by either a line or a circle of
dancers who hold hands while
kicking their legs in unison. At
Wednesday’s event, ISA members
performed the Chobi dance to a
medley of Iraqi music.
During
the
performance,
attendees began clapping to the
beat of the music, rhythmically
uniting the crowd with the
dancers. The ISA performers
then invited the attendees to
join hands with them on the
dance floor and learn the Chobi
dance.
LSA freshman Noor Alchalabi
was one of the performers.
After attending Iraqi culture
events with her older sister at
U-M Dearborn when she was
in high school, Alchalabi said
joining ISA has helped her find
a community on campus. Alchabi
said she hopes after Wednesday’s
event others on campus will have
experienced that same sense of
belonging through drinking chai
and dancing Chobi.
“I’m excited to drink chai
and see more members of my
community,” Alchalabi said. “I’m
looking forward to doing Chobi
with everyone who wants to do
it.”
Daily News Editor Roni Kane
can be reached at ronikane@umich.
edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
2 — Wednesday, April 6, 2022