Syringe in the street!

[hungryhippo90]

I don't know if I'm terribly sheltered, but DD on the way down the road DD spotted a syringe, quite luckily so, as she would have trodden on it otherwise.

Am I really sheltered to be shocked by this?

I just haven't encountered this before,

I'm very doubtful that it was there for any other reason than it having been dropped (major road so not a likely injecting site)

I'm not trying to vilify anyone, I'm just genuinely wondering if I'm just a bit naive to be so shocked, or do people find syringes about often and go about their day without another thought?

Not often but it happens. My worst found was a syringe by the front door of the kids nursery.

Was there a needle in it?

ring your local council. They'll pick it up as a priority because it's a dangerous thing to have lying around (because of the sharp needle). Probably within an hour during work times. I'd guess within 4 hours out of office times.

Don't try and pick it up yourself

You are very sheltered. It's not nice but I think it's bizarre that you are shocked enough to MN about this.

It depends where you live I suppose.

I live in a major city and have seen this more than once (although it's still not nice to see) certain areas of the city it's more common than others and actually certain times of day too. I think working so early meant I was walking before the council did their morning clear up maybe.

Most people put them in a plastic bottle. They can be handed in at any pharmacy by the user and theres no excuse for leaving them lying around like that.
In some areas its not usual to see them discarded on the street.

I suppose you have been a little sheltered in that respect, but that's no bad thing. I've seen several in my hometown.

The comparatively good news is that the risk of contracting a disease from a discarded needle is minute. There have only ever been two reported cases (both for hepatitis).

It's the first time I've seen it, and I was shocked because in my mind, yes there's a possibility of it, but I'd always thought that if I ever saw one, it would be somewhere that someone's injected themselves. Not in The middle of a large street.

I thought mumsnet was the best place to ask, as I was on my way to my Dads (who works in addiction in several different forms, one of the most relevant to this situation is he helps to run a needle exchange) so when I got to his (50 ish metres away) he went out with a Glass jar picked it up and brought it home. He will dispose of it over the weekend. But his view is somewhat skewed by seeing how many addicted people he sees, and also was unfazed by the syringe, he sees loads of them because of work.

But then so is my view, having only seen one, in my entire life!

Good to get outside opinions!

Sybis - I definitely thought I may have been sheltered! The two people who contracted Hep from the needles, surely that was of one town only?

Djbaggysmalls- I never knew about that, though I do know there is a centre about 5 minutes away, where needles can be swapped or just dropped off. I think it was the carelessness that shocked me most.

Ginkypig, thank you. I've moved around a lot of towns, small to large, one of them towns is frequently listed as one of the worst towns to live in the country, and is rampant for drug and alcohol addiction, but I'd never seen a discarded syringe, which I'd put down to not coming into contact with the kind of places which would be injection sites. I've ended up in a new area and within a month have seen this. I think that the council are quite prompt with clean ups.

Iwasjistabouttosaythat- maybe it is a little bizarre, but I've never seen it before and i wanted the perspective of people all over the country, on whether it is as uncommon as I would think, or whether it's actually a bit more common than I'd realised. Wouldn't have fazed me, if I'd have been walking somewhere a bit out of the way, but I wasn't.

Imissgrannyw- I was going to call the council, my dads a bit no nonsense and went out, picked it up and put it in a glass jar and took it home (he will dispose of it at work over the weekend)

Kingjoffreys- yep, there was a needle in it.

Sparklyleprachaun- outside a nursery?!

I would second always phoning the council to deal with this kind of thing.

I would also like to quickly point out though that syringes aren't only used by drug addicts, and are used by all sorts of people every day for managing serious medical conditions. (type 1 diabetes for example) It is possible that someone could have dropped it by accident or fallen out a pocket etc.

It was still very irresponsible to lose it of course. No denying that.

Used to see them all the time at my local park

Always got told as a kid to not pick anything off the floor because it was likely to be a needle

I had to ring the council last year as there was about 10 syringes and neeedles in the middle of the road outside my house.

They sent someone pretty quickly to clear it up

There used to be loads on the beach in the town where I grew up. Not a summer went by without some poor kid stepping on one.

I never did but I found one and touched one when I was about 9, old enough to know better really, my mum went batshit.

Never encountered one when out and about but when I moved into my current house I found a set of syringe needles in the medicine cupboard but the previous tenant wasn't diabetic. Are there other conditions that are managed by self-injection?

Nat IVF or steroids?

I've lived in London all my life and only seen one in the street. It wouldn't shock me if I saw one now, I've always been more shocked I've only ever seen the once.

A primary school where I did one of my PGCE placements had a lot of trouble with them being lobbed over the fence into the school grounds.
The caretaker had to do a thorough sweep every morning to pick them up. He told me that the weekend before they returned from summer holidays he'd picked up 64 needles. I was horrified.
The council wouldn't prioritise building a wall, despite several pleas and the school couldn't afford to do it themselves.

Where I live there are some huge old Victorian houses on the main road into town that were used as shooting galleries in the late 80's to early 00's and the pavements outside were frequently littered with syringes and old spoons. I remember going past on the bus once and a young lad was sat nodding on the wall outside one of these houses, with a hospital band on his wrist. I guessed he's maybe od'd then as soon as he'd been let out gone straight back and gotten off his tits as soon as he could.

Most of our public toilets in the town centre have that blue light so that heroin addicts can't inject themselves in there too, as there was a bit of a problem at one point with council workers finding people who'd od'd in them. Our town is not a very pleasant place to shop at the moment.