Background: This fact-finding study aimed to attain an overall idea and knowledge about medicine disposal practices in Dhaka Metropolitan households. Methods: This mixed study (both quantitative and qualitative) was orchestrated to inspect the household leftover medicine disposal pattern’s governing status. A cross-sectional survey was conducted following a structured questionnaire and key informant interview with a household person and in-depth interviews with the top pharmaceutical and government officials. Results: Findings disclose that, for most of the key informants, the terms “drug disposal” and “drug pollution” were unknown; more precisely, 67% and 74% of key informants even did not hear these two terms. Almost all (87%) households faced undesired incidents due to the insecure storage of medicines. People disposed of excess and expired medication in regular dustbins (47%), threw out of the window (19%), flushed within commode (4%), burnt in fire (2%), and reused (4%). A good percentage of people (21%) returned unexpired drugs to the pharmacy and bought other medicines on a need basis. A total of 72% wanted a medicine take-back program, and 100% agreed on mass education on this issue. Officials of pharmaceuticals conferred mixed opinion: top-ranked pharmaceuticals will adopt leftover medicine disposal practices; middle and low-ranked pharmaceutical companies are reluctant, merely denied mentioning the less important issue. Conclusions: The absence of mass awareness and standard laws and policies may explain these existing aberrant practices.

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Indiscriminate discharge of industrial effluent has become a serious problem for the agro-ecological environment in most of the areas of Bangladesh. The effects of loom-dye effluents on seed germination and early seedling growth of rice (Oryza sativa L.) were investigated by conducting an experiment in the laboratory of the Department of Agricultural Chemistry of Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh. Three types of loom-dye effluents were applied in sterilized petridishes at different loading ratios. Seven treatments (i.e., T0, T1, T2, T3, T4, T5 and T6 with 0, 5, 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100% effluent, respectively) of each effluent were used following completely randomized design (CRD) and replicated three times. Subsequently, Pb, Fe, Zn, Mn and Cr accumulation were also investigated in the harvested rice seedlings. Rice seed showed a significant difference in germination percentage with varying levels of effluent application at different days after setting of germination. The decreased seed germination rate and seedling growth of rice were observed with increased concentration of loom-dye effluents. The highest germination speed (97.8%) was obtained from control whereas the lowest germination speeds were obtained from T5 of black, and T6 of both black and violet effluents. Phytotoxic effects of loom-dye effluents on germination and radical length were extreme at 100% effluent concentration having the order of black > violet > pink. The maximum radical length (6.4 cm) and plumule length (7.5 cm) were observed with T1 of pink dye effluent whereas the minimum length of radical and plumule were obtained from T6 treatment of the effluents. The highest fresh weight (39.8 mg petridish–1), dry weight (5.7 mg petridish–1) and seedling vigor index (746.7%) were also observed from T1 of pink dye effluent. The maximum uptake of Pb, Fe, Mn and Zn was 0.48, 3.81, 0.79 and 0.13 μg g−1, respectively. The uptake of Cr was below the detectable limit. Total heavy metal accumulation in rice was in the following order: Fe>Mn>Pb>Zn>Cr. Results showed that the higher concentration of loom-dye effluent showed the higher toxic effects on different parameters of germination and early seedling growth compared with the lower effluent concentrations. J. Bangladesh Agril. Univ. 17(2): 153–160, June 2019

Model pharmacy has been adopted recently to upgrade the healthcare delivery system in Bangladesh. This study was aimed to analyze and compare the effectiveness of drug dispensing patterns, practices, and knowledge of both clients and dispensers of model pharmacies over traditional retail medicine shops. Two established methods, namely, client simulated method (CSM) and provider interview method (PIM), were employed to determine the practice differences in 90 retail medicine shops and 90 model pharmacies in and around Dhaka city. The results are represented primarily in comparison with corresponding percentages. The survey results did not fully support the findings obtained from the observations of the CSM as PIM contrasted these to some extent, and the differences are statistically significant ( p < 0.0001 ). According to CSM, the presence of A-grade pharmacists during working hours in retail medicine shops was 0%, and 63% in model pharmacies. As reported by PIM, in the retail medicine shops, 36% of clients were ignorant of visiting doctors before purchasing medicine. On the other hand, only 18% of clients could visit doctors. As per CSM, 40% of clients did not follow doctors' recommendations for completion of the full dose of antibiotics bought from retail medicine shops and 51% did not finish full antibiotic courses collected from model pharmacies. Additionally, CSM revealed that 28% of the clients administered leftover drugs following old and obsolete prescriptions of retail medicine shops and 21% of clients followed the same practices in terms of model pharmacies. The report of CSM revealed that 95% of dispensers of retail medicine shops sold medicine without prescription except over-the-counter (OTC), and in the model pharmacies, the percentage was 77%. The qualitative findings revealed substandard practices and dispensing pattern too. Model pharmacies were established to prevent aberrant medicine dispensing patterns and ensure proper medication dispensing practices and medicine intake. This research could not verify the situation that pharmacists or owners of model pharmacies were fully abiding by the guidelines set for them by the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA).

to evaluate the effect of nitrogen (N) fertilizer on the yield and quality of wheat cv. BARI gom30. The experiment comprised four levels of Nitrogen (N) viz., 0, 50, 100, 150 kg/ha. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The experimental result showed that there were significant differences in grain yield and straw yield due to the application of Nitrogen (N), although some of the yield attributes were not found significant. The highest plant height (96.23 cm), number of total tillers/plant (4.58), number of effective tillers/plant (4.00), spike length (10.16 cm), number of fertile spikelets/spike (48.92), number of grains/panicle (20.11), 1000-grain weight (49.78 g), grain yield (5.25 t/ha) and straw yield (6.30 t/ha) were obtained from 100 kg N/ha. The lowest plant height (84.00cm), number of effective tillers/plant (2.33), grain yield (4.25 t/ha) and straw yield (5.42 t/ha) were observed with the application of 0 kg N/ha. The highest number of sterile spikelets/spike (3.17) was found under control and highest harvest index (46.50%) was obtained from 150 kg N/ha. The overall results of the present study demonstrated that wheat may be grown successfully for obtaining maximum yield with the application of 100 kg N/ha.