COUNCILS ACT ON NEEDLE THREAT

Melbourne authorities have responded quickly to fears of needle-stick
injuries on city beaches, with Port Phillip Council saying it may
install signs warning beachgoers of the risks.

The Environment Protection Authority has also said it will meet all
bayside councils this week to consider how to rid Melbourne's beaches
of discarded syringes.

The authority will coordinate a meeting between the councils and the
Department of Human Services this Friday to improve syringe collection
on beaches.

Jonathan Crowe, 31, of Wollongong, pricked his foot on a used syringe
during the weekend ironman event at Elwood beach. He now has to wait
three months to learn if he was infected with HIV or the hepatitis B
virus.

The authority's chairman, Dr Brian Robinson, yesterday
said,

"To have a scare like this about our beaches in the middle of summer -
most people would say it's unacceptable." Twenty used syringes were
found on the beach by event organisers.

Rowing Victoria yesterday warned that city rowers were at risk of
injury every day from needles washed up on the banks of the Yarra River.

The general manager of Rowing Victoria, Ms De Fraser, said syringes
were found every day at the Princes Bridge rowing precinct in the city.

"You could go down there every day and find something, especially if
the tide is up," she said.

The staging area for the launching of rowing boats caught refuse and
syringes washed up from storm drains, Ms Fraser said.

Syringes have been a problem for the city rowing community over the
past six years and there had been one needle-stick injury three years
ago.

The Princes Bridge precinct caters for 28 different rowing clubs and
more than 1500 people row there on a regular basis, including the
Oarsome Foursome and other Olympic and elite rowing athletes. School
and university students also launched their rowing boats from the
Princes Bridge staging area.

The State Government yesterday said it would work to ensure the
state's beaches were syringe-free, but admitted the task was nearly
impossible.

The acting Premier, Mr John Thwaites, said many syringes were
discarded in the city's 300 storm water drains, which emptied into the
bay, and they then washed up on beaches.

"Our beaches are some of the best in the world and we've got to make
sure people have the confidence that they can go there in safety," he
said.

Mr Thwaites said Friday's meeting would examine how to increase the
public's safety by ensuring better beach cleaning, promoting safer
needle disposal and providing more sharps containers on or near beaches.

Port Phillip Council is considering placing warning signs and needle
disposal units near the beach and a beach-cleaning system that targets
syringes.

There are 25 syringe disposal units in the Port Phillip area and
beaches are cleaned daily. Bayside Council, which will also attend
Friday's meeting, will incorporate the issue of discarded syringes
into its public beach awareness safety campaign, the chief executive,
Mr Ian Wilson, said.

Further south along Port Phillip Bay, the Frankston Council acting
chief executive, Mr Peter Fitchett, said the Frankston foreshore was
cleaned at least three times a week by a specialised mechanical beach
comber, which sifted the sand to a depth of about 10 centimetres.
Bayside, Kingston and Port Philip councils all use similar
beach-cleaning machines.

The Kingston Council Mayor, Cr Lesley Gurgan, said there had been no
known incidents of needle-stick injuries along the council's 13
kilometres of beachfront.

Mr Crowe told Channel Nine's Today program yesterday that his injury
had forced him to delay starting a
family.