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Previous Volume 340:1600 May 20, 1999 Number 20 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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To the Editor: Clinicians give pharmaceutical samples provided to clinics by industry sales representatives to patients who are unable to afford medicines or use them as starter packs for patients initiating a new treatment. These samples are usually contained in large, elaborate, colorful, single-use packages. Paper packaging constitutes up to 50 percent of the 180 million tons of garbage Americans produce each year and represents the fastest-growing segment of garbage production.¹

For these reasons, we sought to determine the relative amounts of packaging and pills in pharmaceutical samples in a university general-medicine clinic. We measured the mass and the total . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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