NEEDLE PARK REOPENED

Used hypodermic needles found Sunday in a city playground didn't come from
any city hospitals, says Capital Health's medical officer of health.

"We know now that they didn't come from any of our hospitals, because the
needles were all capped," Dr. Gerry Predy said yesterday. "The practice
there (at hospitals) is to dispose of them in sharps containers."

Capital Health is still investigating after 21 syringes were discovered in
the playground sand at John Devoldere Memorial Park near 164 Street and 83
Avenue.

The park reopened yesterday afternoon, after city crews sifted through
sand, scoured the area with a metal detector and found one more needle,
said Dale Ehrman, a city parkland operations director.

"It was in the grassland park area surrounding the playground," he said.

The caps had been replaced on the empty needles that initially held a drug
called Eprex, which promotes red blood cell production, said Predy.

"What we think happened was somebody had used these in their home, and
somehow they got to the playground."

Eprex is often used to treat patients with cancer or kidney disease, but it
can also be illegally used by athletes as a performance enhancer that
increases the blood's ability to carry oxygen, he said.

Capital Health will use the lot numbers on the needles to try to trace them
back to their distributor, he said.