CHAMPAIGN — Want to rid your home of those leftover, expired and otherwise unwanted prescription drugs?

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and local agencies in Illinois will take them off your hands today, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., at selected locations around the state.

The first National Prescription Drug Take Back Day last September netted 242,000 pounds of unwanted and out-of-date prescription drugs at nearly 4,100 sites operated by the agency and more than 3,000 state and local law enforcement locations, according to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

Medications are accepted, no questions asked, and burned to keep them out of the water supply and out of the hands of curious children and drug abusers.

According to the DEA, most abused prescription drugs are obtained through family and friends and the home medicine cabinet.

Illinois American Water is encouraging people to participate in a drug take-back event.

All too often unwanted medications wind up flushed down toilets or down the drain, according to company spokeswoman Karen Cotton. Even when drugs are thrown in the trash, they can leach into the ground water. Those that are flushed can also contaminate water sources as well as kill bacteria that break down waste in sewage plants and damage septic systems, according to the EPA.

Traces of medications found in water supplies haven't posed a danger to human health, Cotton said, but "we still feel it's very important to protect our water resources."

Bringing unwanted medications to these collection sites "protects two very important resources, our youth and our water," Cotton said.

For a list of participating drug take-back sites, see this website: http://1.usa.gov/eB8TPU. The only site listed for Champaign County is Sangamon Elementary School, 601 E. Main St., Mahomet. The only site listed for Vermilion County is the Vermilion County Courthouse, 7 N. Vermilion St., Danville.

Cotton said unwanted medications can also be taken any time to participating Carle RxExpress locations in Champaign, Urbana, Mahomet, Monticello and Danville. To find participating pharmacies and other locations that accept medications for disposal in your Illinois county, see this website: http://bit.ly/kqtN5c.