Cameron Penney
Paul Morrison was shocked last week when he was visiting the park near Phair Avenue and Sixth Street East with his family and discovered a baggie filled with used needles in the bush.
His Facebook post to alert people in the area about his discovery quickly went viral—igniting a discussion about needle safety.
“We were to the north part of the tracks on the trails back there; people call them the ‘monkey trails,’” Morrison recalled.
“It’s part of the place where kids play in the bush and we were actually looking for morel mushrooms.
“I was walking along, looking around, and I noticed a baggie and it obviously had something in it, so I went over there to have a look,” he noted, adding he could see needles inside it.
“So I had a couple of Safeway bags and I carefully grabbed the corner of the baggie,” said Morrison, describing it as about a litre-sized ziplock bag.
After double-bagging the needles, Morrison placed them in the back of his truck to properly dispose later.
“I made sure to keep my kids just on the trail, not wanting them to wander too far into the bush after that,” he stressed.
“I was sickened, to be honest,” he admitted. “There’s places in town where people can drop these off.
“For someone to throw them in a baggie and toss them so close to a place where kids play. . . .”
Morrison then contacted the Northwestern Health Unit for assistance to properly dispose of the needles.
“Improperly-discarded needles can pose a health risk to people in the community so it’s really important that people know what to do when they find them,” said Gillian Lunny, manager of sexual health and harm reduction programs at the health unit.
She noted people have two options when dealing with discarded needles. One is that people can pick up the needles safely themselves while the other is to alert the Northwestern Health Unit.
“The Northwestern Health Unit provides safe disposal kits that people can come and pick up,” Lunny remarked, adding the kit features items such as a hard-sided sharps disposal container, tongs, and gloves.
“We know that the less amount of time a needle can spend on the ground, the better it is for everybody,” she stressed.
The kits are available for free, with Lunny suggesting people keep a kit in their car or take it with them when they go for a walk.
If people aren’t comfortable picking up a needle, they can contact the Northwestern Health Unit so they can dispose of it.
“If you call your local office, a public health nurse will come and pick up the needle and dispose of it properly,” Lunny said.
“Public health nurses are very interested in hearing where needles are found,” she added.
As part of the health unit’s harm reduction efforts, a needle exchange program also is offered to mitigate the risks of injection drug use.
“We supply needles and drug preparation equipment to people who inject drugs to decrease the risk of infections like hepatitis C and HIV among the injection drug-using population and, by extension, our communities,” Lunny explained.
“The needle exchange program is an evidence-based, globally-accepted program and its best practice in terms of helping reduce communicable diseases within our community.”
Lunny also noted that despite the needles being found near a park, it does not imply they were used in the vicinity.
“There’s no assumptions we can make based on why they were found there or who put them there,” she remarked.
“There is no way to tell from looking at the needle, or the supplies we give out, to be able to tell what drug it was used for,” she added.
Local OPP Community Services Officer Cst. Guy Beaudry agreed that when finding needles, it is important to reach out to the Northwestern Health Unit.
“We’re telling parents to speak to their children, if they locate [a] needle or something suspicious, to inform a parent or an adult right away,” he said, adding people also can call the OPP.
Morrison said that when having a discussion on needle safety with his children, they recalled previously having seen needles in the area.
But rather than alerting someone, the children simply avoided the area in the future.
“We had a discussion about what they should have done when they saw a needle; they should have come to us,” Morrison stressed.
“It’s a good talk for us to have—what to do if you do find them,” he added.
When posting on Facebook about his discovery, Morrison hoped to give parents a head-up so they would be aware of the danger.
“Social media is pretty effective, I find,” he remarked.
“My intention was to let my friends on there know that this had been found.”
The post quickly garnered about 400 shares and raised plenty of awareness within the community.
“I hope it got the conversation started,” Morrison said. “I hope it got parents talking to their kids and making them aware of this.”
People seeking more information on proper needle disposal can visit www.nwhu.on.ca and follow the links.
“People can learn more about what they can do to keep their community safe and we’re interested in hearing from people,” Lunny said.
“So if people would like to learn more about the program, public health nurses in Fort Frances are always willing to discuss it,” she stressed.
