Kamloops council wants syringes to be brightly coloured so they are visible when improperly discarded.

City council voted unanimously on Tuesday to send a letter to the community action team to support exploring options related to making syringes, which are usually clear, more visible. The idea, recommended by the city’s social planning council, could result in plungers created in a bright colour, possibly fluorescent orange.

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“We could educate children that that colour spells danger, don’t touch, get an adult, whatever that might look like,” Coun. Tina Lange said.

Council got a look at the minutes from a community safety meeting in April and expressed further concern over syringes and the needles in them. Protective services director Byron McCorkell said while the city has been involved in needle cleanup for some time, the problem is increasing, with needles popping up on private property and residents seeing the issue firsthand.

A Kamloops father earlier this year started a petition after his son was jabbed by a needle he found near their family’s home in Westsyde. McCorkell told council the city is working with social agencies and has spoken to Interior Health.

“At this point, we’re hoping to create a mobile group that can go out and pick up needles on behalf of people who don’t know what to do with them,” he said. “The other side of that is to educate people on what to do when they find a needle — how to handle it, where to put it, where to take it, who to phone, all those types of things. The issue of the insecurity of the individual as far as the ‘Oh my God’ factor of the needle, I think we can dissipate that and give them some techniques where they can handle it and they can handle it themselves.”

McCorkell also said residents need to “have a look around” and recommended parents check playgrounds where their kids are playing.

“They have to do it in their home, they have to do it on their street and they have to do it in the public park,” he said. “That’s just the life we’re in right now.”

Mayor Ken Christian called the problem “serious” and said he met last week with the acting director of mental health and addictions for Interior Health, who is expected to appear before city council to address syringes/needles and safe injection sites this summer.

“This is something that we have to work through both as a city, but we have to work through as a province and a nation,” Christian said.

Coun. Donovan Cavers suggested a return program for needles, similar to how beverage containers are recycled. McCorkell said the idea has been discussed and noted there are 83 disposal bins in the city and collection via social agencies.