WORKERS FEAR INFECTION FROM DISCARDED SYRINGES

A five-fold jump in the number of discarded hypodermic syringes found
each month by workers at the Hume recycling plant has raised fears of
needle-stick injuries and infection with Hepatitis B.

The firm operating the 12 trucks in Canberra and Queanbeyan which
empty recycling bins, Sita-BFI Pty Ltd, said workers who hand-sorted
through the material had noticed the rise from 50 needles to 250 a
month over recent months.

Most of the increase appeared to be from recycling bins at unit
complexes, where plastic bags containing syringes, swabs and other
injecting aids were often dumped into recycling bins.

They were found later as workers sorted through the 2500 tonnes of
recycling material collected each month.

A company spokeswoman, Ros Malouf, said some syringes had been in
Sharps containers that had been crushed in the trucks. The 26 workers
in the recycling plant had all been given inoculations against
Hepatitis B and training in handling syringes.

"We are trying to protect our staff," Ms Malouf said. "We have seen a
much higher rate. It's scary.

"People have to realise that whatever goes in their bin must be
touched by other people."

The firm's branch manager, Ross Newell, said the public needed to know
that recycling bins could not be used to dispose of hypodermic needles
and syringes.

The executive director of the ACT Drug referral and Information
Centre, Maureen Cane, said the unsafe disposal of the syringes was by
a minority, and that they faced fines under the Clinical Waste Act.

Ms Cane said the centre's needle-exchange outlets issued about 500,000
needles in Canberra each year, and that 355,000 were returned safely
after use. Many of the needles were for people who took them interstate.

"The number we are talking about is very small," she said. "But we
don't want to encourage disposal other than correctly."

A spokeswoman for Urban Services Minister Brendan Smyth said about
22,800 used syringes in Sharps containers had been disposed of in
needle-shutes in public toilets and public places in 1997-98 (19,454
in 1996-97).

Mr Smyth's staff said the number of sharps disposed of appropriately
had risen 43 per cent but there was also a 15 per cent rise in sharps
dumped in public places.