StarPhoenix: Fewer needles found during annual cleanup
Fewer needles found during annual cleanup
By Jeremy Warren, The StarPhoenix
April 21, 2010
The people who frequented a sheltered hideaway in an alley off 20th Street West left behind traces of a hard life -- empty mouthwash bottles, discarded and dirty clothes, rotten vegetables and stale bread, still wrapped, sit in the sun.
Among the scattered components of a smashed television and unopened, crushed containers of yogurt, 12 used needles were found Tuesday.
"That's the picture of addiction in Saskatoon," said AIDS Saskatoon executive director Nicole White, who found the stash. "You're not just finding needles, you're finding food and sheets of metal used for beds."
The 12 small needles were among 342 found on Saskatoon streets Tuesday morning during an annual spring needle cleanup.
Forty volunteers covered an area stretching from Idylwyld Drive to Avenue W between 19th Street West and 22nd Street West. Some walked an area around 33rd Street West, others walked streets around Eighth Street East.
An estimated 5,000 people in Saskatchewan are injection drug users and the average user goes through 1,000 needles annually, according to a provincial review of needle exchange programs released Dec. 31, 2008.
About one million needles are distributed annually in Saskatoon, according to the Saskatoon Health Region. The Saskatoon Tribal Council and the health region operate needle exchanges.
About 94 per cent of the needles handed out are returned. Many of the missing needles end up in the nooks and crannies of Saskatoon streets and alleys, or in the bushes of city parks.
Every spring, Needle Safe Saskatoon, a partnership that counts AIDS Saskatoon and the Saskatoon Health Region as members, organizes a needle cleanup, dividing up hot spots for volunteers to cover.
Every spring, there's less work for the dozens of volunteers who scour the streets for dirty needles.
"We're finding fewer and fewer needles out there every year," said Dr. Johnmark Opondo, deputy medical health officer for the health region.
"Maybe the education we're doing has meant a better understanding of safety."
In 2009, 11,216 loose needles were collected in Saskatoon, a 58 per cent drop from 2008. Similar decreases were reported by Saskatoon Fire and Protective Services and public health.
Of the 17 needles found by White on Tuesday, most were capped with the plastic, orange covers that come with packaged syringes. The health region has noticed that loose needles are increasingly found capped.
"Capped needles are less of a health risk," said Opondo.
No one in Saskatchewan has been infected after getting pricked with a dirty needle found on the ground, says the provincial needle exchange program review.
Needle exchanges aim to reduce the spread of HIV and hepatitis C, but Saskatoon has seen a significant increase in the number of HIV cases every year since 2005.
The heath region reported 94 new cases of HIV in and around Saskatoon last year, up 22 per cent from the previous year and up 141 from five years earlier, when 39 people were diagnosed.
Injection drug use was often one of the risk factors reported by people newly diagnosed with HIV, said the health region when it released HIV numbers earlier this month.
Supporters defend needle exchanges as HIV rates increase while a million needles are handed out annually.
White said such programs go beyond simply trading a dirty syringe for a clean one.
"When somebody comes in to exchange a needle, we can also ask about housing, ask someone if they want to get into detox or where they got a black eye," she said.
Addictions aren't beat overnight so needle exchanges give people a chance to remain free from infection until they're ready to quit drugs, said Opondo.
"If your child was an addict and you had something available to keep them safe until they were ready to quit, wouldn't you want that?" he said.
Maintaining support for needle exchange is difficult in the face of public pressure and political backlash against drug users and the needles found in parks, said White.
Arguments have to hit the wallet, not the heart, she added.
"If people were aware of how much money is saved (by needle exchange programs), there wouldn't be a debate," said White. "Unfortunately, the spin is not the human cost, but fiscal cost."
Life-long treatment of HIV patients costs the health system, said Opondo.
"If the problems aren't addressed, we'll see health-care costs increase," he said.
NEEDLE SAFETY
What to do when you find a used needle
- Do not recap the needle.
- Wear garden, work or medical gloves.
- Use pliers or tongs to pick up the needle by the blunt end.
- Put the needle in a hard container that needles cannot poke through, such as a bleach container. Cap the container and tape it.
- Wash your hands with soap.
- Store the container in a safe place until it can be placed in a community drop box.
Call 655-4444 for drop box locations and more information. Call the fire department at 975-3030 if you find a needle in a public space.
Source: Needle Safe Saskatoon
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