Needles can be cleaned up safely, says outreach worker

While there is risk, an outreach worker says the chances of becoming infected with a disease from a discarded needle are slim.

During the weekend, Amanda Deley, a 28-year-old single mother discovered her backyard was littered with needles and drug paraphernalia. She tried calling Thunder Bay Housing and Superior Points Harm Reduction Program to help clean up the mess.

“I called everywhere that I could call and nobody will come because it is the weekend,” Deley told tbnewswatch.com on Saturday.

“I called the police and they said it is my responsibility. I don’t know what I am going to do. I don’t feel this is my responsibility to clean it and I don’t think I should get hurt cleaning it.”

Rick Thompson, an outreach worker with Superior Points, went Monday morning and cleaned up the needles from Deley’s yard. He said unfortunately, no one works on the weekends but people can either wait until the beginning of the week for help or pick up the needles themselves by following the instructions on the Superior Points website.

“We recommend that you isolate them in some way, put something over top of them and we will be there first thing Monday morning to get them cleaned up,” Thompson said.

“The likelihood of catching something is so minimal that it is not much to worry about. We want people to be as careful as possible because there is a theoretical risk but the risk is quite low if there was any at all.

“It would be ideal if they could leave it up to us to take care of it but there are instructions on how to handle the needles safely at our website.”