NEWS: SMH - 11/01/09 'Needle-stick injury risk for motorists'

[hoptis]

Needle-stick injury risk for motorists
Eamonn Duff
January 11, 2009

USERS of the Cross City Tunnel have been warned of the risk of needles being dropped by drug addicts who frequent a Sydney suburb directly above.

Syringe signs have been installed along the southbound ramp connecting the tunnel and the Eastern Distributor.

A tunnel spokesman said the signs were erected because an area in Darlinghurst directly above the partially-roofed link had become "a hot spot for injecting".

"Syringes are frequently disposed [of] in this area, causing a potential safety hazard," the spokesman said.

The laneway, between Palmer and Bourke streets, has attracted users since it was created as a result of the tunnel's construction in 2005.

At night, drug users congregate along the dimly lit path to inject drugs including heroin and ice.

They toss the used syringes over a high chain-link security fence or push them through gaps in the barrier, causing them to fall onto the road directly below, posing a potential threat to tunnel workers, motorists with convertible cars or open sunroofs and drivers who have broken down and left their vehicles.

The tunnel spokesman said: "To the knowledge of the current management - which has been in place since the change of ownership in September 2007 - there has never been an incident of needle-stick injury.

"Nonetheless, the signage remains in place in the interests of worker safety and in the rare event that a motorist got out of their car and walked around in the ramp area."

Opposition roads spokesman Andrew Stoner said the situation was "a demonstration of Labor's policy failure on two fronts". He said: "The Cross City Tunnel design has been dogged by controversy from day one and this is yet another indication of the flawed process.

"Second, this proves the Kings Cross injecting rooms are failing to take people off the streets, which is what they're there to do."

Mr Stoner said the priority should be to close the pathway, which would ensure addicts had no opportunity to dispose of needles in a manner which posed such a danger to tunnel users.

"It shouldn't be a huge task. It is, however, essential given the real risk of a needle-stick injury, or worse," he said.

Sydney Morning Herald

 

[the_ketaman]

It has been proven that the injecting room prevents many from injecting on the streets so stating that it hasnt worked is completely false, there are IDU's(Injecting drug users) everywhere, you cant expect every single one to go to the injecting room for every shot, plus the room isnt open all the time. when I was injecting I wanted to use the room many times when it was closed. This doesnt mean I approve of what happening with all these people throwing their fits but how bout keeping the injecting room open or maybe opening more at drug user hotspots. I havent done too much research on how much they spent on the injecting room but cant they make more?

I think this article is just trying to make the injecting room look bad once again. This article actually surprised me especially since noone had actually been stuck by a needle yet, if they had then it'd be a bit more understandable.

 

[Logan_Rah]

If they know that people are often using this place to inject why not install some nice easy to use sharps bins, so that people can safely dispose of their rigs not throw them on the road. Not exactly hard or expensive to put in a few decent bins in an area you know they'll get used and possibly save someone from getting injured.

 

[drug_mentor]

Blatant media crap. Just a new angle to play on the 'drug scourge' now they have tunnels with syringes raining from the sky lmfao. Nobodies even been poked in the area yet? What a joke. Why don't they report on some drug hotspots where people have actually been jabbed and contacted an illness?

 

[DoctorShop]

^ Agreed. Nothing to see here. Just a journalist trying to write a 'hot' story. Hacks.

 

[ayjay]

Luckily, no-one in Australia has ever contracted HIV or hepatitis C from a community acquired needle stick injury. The risk is pretty low, but non-zero. Of course if the fit was nice and fresh - like you just copped one in the head as you're driving your swanky beemer convertible through the tunnel - then the infection risk would be higher. But still low.

Must be a slow news week

 

[the_ketaman]

^^You beat me to it.

Outside the medical industry noone has been stuck by a needle and caught anything worse than tetanus. Though in the medical field I think a few unfortunate people have contracted diseases, in the 70's my mum had a needlestick injury while working and thank god HIV wasnt really prevalent then, im not sure it even existed that early.

Anyway this article is crap, for shame on the writer.