It's minus-32 degrees with the wind chill, and Fred Dunham is in a downtown alley in Sudbury, cleaning up used needles.
"There are a lot of syringes in the area and we found them in spots you would never believe. Two weeks ago I found a used syringe on the front steps of the courthouse. When you think it's not in your community, well they are." says Dunham, a community outreach worker with The Sudbury Action Centre for Youth.
Workers say from November 1st to December 1st, 13-thousand used syringes have been recovered.
"We recently started taking calls from 311, and people on Facebook are connecting with us to reach out and let us know where we can find syringes." says Tina Rowe, also with the Action Centre for Youth.
As part of the city-sponsored program, the workers do their best to get these dangers off the streets and out of the alleyways. However, they often say they find needles thrown on the ground, just steps away from bio-hazard bins that have been designed specifically for safe disposal of used syringes.
"Here you go, there’s another syringe there, and another one here.” says Dunham, pointing to the ground near the bio-bins.
Experts say used needles pose a huge risk to anyone who comes in contact with them, as they can carry blood-borne viruses, HIV, and Hepatitis-C. These collection workers say anyone who finds a used syringe can call 311 to have it safely removed.
“If we get help from people calling 311, it's fantastic because then we can find what we need out here.” says Dunham.
The City of Greater Sudbury is funding the needle cleanup recovery program over the next year at a cost of just over 72-thousand dollars.
