Pubdate: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB) Copyright: 2007 The Edmonton Journal Contact: http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134 Author: Andrea Sands Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange) USED NEEDLE SCARE FOR CITY FATHER He'll Be Tested For HIV, Hepatitis After Stepping On Piece Of Discarded Syringe EDMONTON - In the past year, Nicholas Hermansen has complained repeatedly to police and health officials that drug users are littering his Boyle McCauley neighbourhood with discarded needles. Now the 34-year-old electrician and father of two needs a series of blood tests for hepatitis and HIV after he stepped on a broken needle tip in his back yard about a week ago. "Every time you think about it, your stomach gets butterflies. You just have to be logical and think about the fact that the chance of catching something is very, very remote," he said Saturday. Hermansen had returned home from work Aug. 3 when he stepped out his back door in his socks to go to his garage. As he walked across a concrete pad, Hermansen felt something poke his foot. "I didn't think anything of it and then an hour later I went to have my bath and pulled it out of my heel." The thin, blackened needle tip was only about an inch long. It appeared to be old. Hermansen immediately called Capital Health's link line, where a nurse put him in touch with the health authority's needle stick program. "Obviously, there's a problem if you need a whole program for people accidentally stuck with needles," Hermansen said. Hermansen went to the Royal Alexandra Hospital that night for blood tests. The negative results were faxed to the Eastwood Health Centre the next day, where he received a booster for an earlier hepatitis B vaccination along with a tetanus shot. "I have to go back for more tests after three months and after six months to see if there was anything on the syringe, to see if I contracted anything." The dad of two girls, ages four and 22 months, moved his family into their house on 106A Avenue near 95th Street a year ago. Hermansen said he sees discarded needles lying around his neighbourhood about once a week. "The house beside me was two years in being built, and in the interim people were going in there and shooting up and doing God knows what else, so I assume that's where it came from." He has already told his kids never to touch needles, but he is worried for other young families moving into the area. Hermansen thinks a needle-exchange program that hands out and collects syringes for injection drug users is only making matters worse. The Boyle McCauley Health Centre, at 10628 96 St., is one of five fixed sites for the Streetworks program that runs the needle exchange. "They say it's a needle exchange, but obviously there's something wrong with the math or the equation or there's another source (for needles) they're not talking about because they end up on the streets," Hermansen said. Dr. Gerry Predy, medical officer of health for Capital Health, said the Streetworks program sometimes collects more needles than it hands out, but users of illicit drugs get needles from other sources. Predy said Streetworks educates people about proper needle disposal and provides several safe-disposal boxes around the inner city to keep needles off the street. "It's a way of having better control over the discarding of needles," he said. "But like other forms of litter, some of them get discarded in ways that are not appropriate. "It's an issue I don't think is caused by the needle exchange program." Streetworks manager Marliss Taylor said the program distributed about 680,000 needles last year within about a 25-block area in the inner city. Instead of handing out needles to drug users, health officials should set up a safe-injection site where users are supervised while they shoot up so needles never make it out the door, Hermansen said. "They can hope someone throws a needle out (safely) all they want, but they can't guarantee it." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom