McKeen calls for better data on needle collection PAIGE PARSONS

The number of calls to pick up needles from city streets is on the rise, but the actual number of needles collected dropped off in 2018.

The issue came to the fore Wednesday after a national newspaper columnist sparked an online debate after finding a needle on his property and suggested there may be a connection with nearby safe injection sites in the city’s core.

“I find it defies logic to think that safe consumption sites are the cause of needle debris. Could there be a correlation? Perhaps,” said Ward 6 Coun. Scott McKeen, who represents the area where all of the city’s three community safe

consumption sites are located.

“We need better data,” McKeen said, adding that plans are in the works to increase and improve needle collection.

The coalition that supports and oversees Edmonton’s three community safe injection sites declined to comment Wednesday, citing a Dec. 10 federal court hearing during which they will defend against an effort to have the sites’ federal exemption revoked by a group of neighbourhood and community associations who oppose the clinics’ concentration in the city’s core.

Between Jan. 1 and Oct. 30, the city ’s 311 line received 863 calls for service, and 2,590 needles were picked up from public spaces.

In the same period in 2017, 311 got 630 calls, and 5,178 needles were collected. City staff noted that there were multiple instances of batches of 100-200 needles collected in 2017, possibly because of diabetic needle dumps.

The city didn’t make monthly data, or data from earlier years, available to Postmedia.

The city also has a map showing where needles are being found across the city, but refused to share it with Postmedia.

Don Belanger, program manager for Capital City Cleanup, which runs the needle pickup, said it’s crucial for residents to report needles they discover, adding it’s possible that more awareness of the pickup program has contributed to increased call volume.

Belanger said the team works during the daytime, seven days a week, and generally does same-day response to reports of needles. If the report is late in the day or afterhours, it will be handled the next day, unless the needle is in an area frequented by children or a dog park — if it’s urgent, a fire crew is dispatched to deal with it.

But if a needle is found on private property, it’s the resident’s responsibility to deal with it. The city posted instructions for how to dispose of a needle online.

Belanger said there are a number of legal and liability issues that prevent the city from pickups on private property, though he said the city has begun tracking reports of needles found on private land.

‘SAVES LIVES’

Between the first clinic opening in March and Nov. 25, there were 23,269 injections by 963 people at the three community injection sites, and 252 overdoses reversed. A fourth site operates at Royal Alexandra Hospital, but is only open to in-patients.

Though safe consumption sites are new, the community has been operating another harm reduction program for nearly 30 years: Streetworks, opened in 1989 as Needleworks, distributes clean needles and collects used sharps.

Elliot Tanti, spokesman for Boyle Street Community Services, said roughly 90-95 per cent of needles given out are returned.

Alberta Health Services was unable to provide rates of community needle-stick injuries on Wednesday, but a position statement published this month by the Canadian Paediatric Society notes the risk of infection from a discarded needle is extremely low. However, the society stated, a child and their parents must seek out assessment, counselling and followup if a needle stick injury happens.