Pubdate: Tue, 3 Aug, 1999 Source: Toronto Star (Canada) Copyright: 1999, The Toronto Star Contact: http://www.thestar.com/ Page: B5 Author: Joel Baglole, Staff Reporter DOZENS OF NEEDLES FOUND ON BEACH Lifeguards Find Hypodermics Near Play Area Police and lifeguards are at a loss to explain how 30 hypodermic needles ended up on Toronto's Palais beach over the weekend. Joanne Cautillo of Woodbridge made the discovery at 4 p.m. Sunday when she went to collect her two children from the west-end beach, which is beside Sunnyside beach on Lake Ontario. "I noticed a lot of debris on the beach, and when I looked closer, I saw some hypodermic needles," she said. "My son was walking in the water in his bare feet. He didn't even notice the needles. If I'd known about them then, believe me, we wouldn't have gone to the lakeshore at all." Cautillo, 40, alerted Shannon Young, the head lifeguard at Palais and Sunnyside beaches. Young, 25, and fellow lifeguard Susan Furs, 21, quickly began combing the area. "It was shocking," said Cautillo, who helped them search. "Within five or 10 minutes of going through the debris, we found almost 25 needles." By the time Young and Furs finished looking, they had uncovered 30 needles spread over a 250-metre stretch of beach. Sergeant Adrian Fynes of the Toronto police marine unit said yesterday police have started an investigation to find out where the needles came from. "At this point it's a mystery how they got there," said Fynes. "It appears to be an isolated incident, but we'll be monitoring the situation." Matt Quattro, 23, another lifeguard at the Palais and Sunnyside beaches, said the needles likely washed up during Saturday's rainstorm, when large waves brought several tree branches and pieces of wood to shore. "After a large storm the size of Saturday's, we tend to get a lot of stuff washed up on shore," he said. "But not needles." Fynes said he's not aware of drug users frequenting the waterfront area, and added that the two beaches receive regular police patrols at night. "We sure don't get this every week," said Young, who has spent the last three summers as a lifeguard on the two-kilometre stretch of beach between the Palais Royale dance hall and the mouth of the Humber River. "We might see one hypodermic needle every few weeks," she said. "But not 30 at once. That's a lot." Young estimated that 1,500 to 2,000 people passed by the needles Sunday afternoon. Hundreds of children play on the jungle gym, swings and slide in a playground just metres from where the needles were uncovered. "Its really alarming," said Andrew Anderson, 31, a computer programmer who was at Palais beach yesterday with his girlfriend's 7-year-old son, Eric Tacakas. "I could understand if they found one needle. But 30? That's excessive. Especially with all the kids around here. You know kids, they'll pick anything up." Young placed the 30 needles, many of them capped, in a biohazard container that the eight lifeguards who patrol the two beaches use to hold sharp objects. Toronto Public Health official Jim Chan said the lifeguards handled the situation properly. Until Sunday, they had discovered only five needles on the beaches since the end of May. - --- MAP posted-by: Thunder