Build-up of needles

KNOWN drug-use areas such as City Hill are becoming a serious public
health risk due to inadequate sharps disposal, Labor Urban Services
spokesman John Hargreaves said last week.

However, a spokeswoman for Urban Services Minister Brendan Smyth
countered by accusing Mr Hargreaves of hampering the work of the
Sharps Hotline by playing political games.

Mr Hargreaves called on the Government to introduce regular clean-up
patrols to prevent the build up of dangerous materials such as used
syringes and swabs.

Acting on information passed to his office, he had inspected City Hill
last Monday and found "a number of syringes".

The next day he had returned to find more.

After phoning the Sharps Hotline on Wednesday morning and being told
the area had been cleared, Mr Hargreaves had returned later in the day
only to find another five syringes.

"Known user areas are not regularly patrolled. This is just not
acceptable," Mr Hargreaves said.

"These areas are positively dangerous and are often littered with
broken glass and other seemingly dangerous items like used medical
swabs.

The Government should "get its priorities right and address the
dangerous litter issues like these instead of concentrating its time
on issues like papers on windscreens," he said, referring to Health
Minister Michael Moore's initiative to ban advertising slips on car
windscreens.

The spokeswoman for Mr Smyth denied Mr Hargreaves' allegations, saying
City Hill was cleaned regularly.

She said he had been unnecessarily obstructive in his calls to the
Sharps Hotline, refusing to identify himself and say exactly where the
syringes were.

"Mr Hargreaves' refusal to cooperate by giving detailed information
not only wasted the ranger's time but ensured it took extra time to
find and collect those needles, which in turn increased the public
risk," she said.

"The Sharps Hotline relies on the community in helping it locate
potentially dangerous syringes so they can be removed quickly."

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady