Councilors want first-responders on needle disposal

[unhappycamper]

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2015/08/councilors_want_first_responders_on_needle_disposal

Councilors want first-responders on needle disposal
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Jack Encarnacao

Two city councilors are pushing an ordinance that would trip a 911 call every time city crews find a needle on public property, following a recent Herald report about a 7-year-old girl who was pricked by a discarded syringe at a Hyde Park playground and forced to undergo precautionary HIV treatment.

The ordinance proposed by councilors Stephen J. Murphy and Timothy McCarthy, both of Hyde Park, would make emergency personnel in the city – police, fire, and EMS – “responsible for proper disposal of needles, syringes, and lancets found on city streets, parks, playgrounds, and other public spaces and property under the jurisdiction of the city.”

Murphy said he envisions a process where a city cleanup employee who finds a needle cordons off the area until first responders with hazmat training arrive.

“You’re protecting the public by cordoning it off and calling 911 and getting the professionals to deal with it,” Murphy said, referencing the plight of Cadence Epstein, who was pricked when she picked up a needle July 17 during a summer program at Iacono Playground. “No child or no person in Boston should be facing what she’s facing because of lack of protocols.”

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Or they could give city cleanup employees a ten minute training in how to dispose of sharps.

It's not rocket science.

The same person expected to 'make the call' could deal with the needle.