Philips pops out the drug packing iPill
An "intelligent pill" with a microprocessor, battery, wireless radio, pump and a drug reservoir to release medication in a specific area in the body was announced yesterday by Dutch electronics firm Philips. The multivitamin-sized iPill, to be swallowed with a sip of water, measures acidity or temperature with a sensor to …
Recycling...?
At $1000 a pop, it seems that your insurance company would insist on a way to return the empty for a deposit after a... deposit... I wonder if there will be a price break if you are willing to use a factory-reconditioned iPill and whether the insurance companies will be able to require the use of pre-owned iPills, when available, to keep costs down?
I mean the obvious thing is to flush the used device when it's finished its job, but I'm assuming that, between microprocessor, sensors and battery there are going to be materials that by law will have to be recycled to separate toxic-waste disposal sites, rather than simply being... dumped... as it were...
That being the case, it seems likely that recycling services will be able to make the evacuated units available to the original manufacturer at modest cost, allowing for refurbishment and re-use -- providing the manufacturer with a secondary revenue stream.
In whose hands is the responsibility for separating the gold (not to mention the beryllium, lithium, etc) from the dross going to end up; that's what I want to know!
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