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45+-year-old medicine bottle washes up

45+-year-old medicine bottle washes up

Thursday 18 January 2024

45+-year-old medicine bottle washes up

Thursday 18 January 2024


A small medical bottle from the late 1970s has been found washed up on Guernsey's north coast.

Janet Unitt regularly spends her time picking up litter and some treasures from the island's shore.

She posts her finds on her Facebook page Janet's Beachcombing Finds and often shares them to the FOUND ON THE BEACH IN GUERNSEY (BEACHCOMBERS) page - collectively they have more than 5,000 members, many of whom also spend time 'wombling' on the Bailiwick's beaches and other public spaces.

During a recent womble at Bunker Hill and around Fort Le Marchant Ms Unitt found a lot of shipping litter, much of which was identified as waste from overseas with different languages on the bottles, cans and wrappers she picked up. 

Having taken home the rubbish she had picked up to sort and recycle or throw away Ms Unitt then made an interesting discovery.

One of the smaller items she had found turned out to be a bottle of eye medicine which expired in 1979.

The small bottle had been picked up from St Catherine Bay which is near Fort Le Marchant, on Tuesday.

Google Translate helped Ms Unitt discover that the antibiotic eye drops contained medicines which should not be swallowed. 

On sharing her discovery with the wider audience on the Found on the beach page, Ms Unitt's post was met with interest from regular beach cleaners Sam Reoch and Richard Lord.

Ms Reoch noted that "the plastic hasn't changed a bit" despite it being nearly five decades old. 

The product contained in the bottle is still available - by prescription - to treat eye infections, such as conjunctivitis and other conditions which cause stinging, redness, or blurred vision. 

The main ingredient - chloramphenicol - is believed to be a "strong" and "broad spectrum" antibiotic that in its purest form is "not frequently used because of its high risk of bone marrow toxicity".

The eye ointment contained in the near-50 year old bottle which has washed up on Guernsey's north coast also contained delta hydrocortisone.

READ MORE...

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More than 5,000 plastic bottles removed from west coach beaches

Overseas rubbish washes up on our shores; rare finds in amongst it 

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