HALIFAX—A new provincial campaign is using some sharp language to raise awareness of the dangers improperly discarded needles present for front-line waste workers.

“Nobody signs up for this job thinking they may be at risk for HIV or hepatitis,” said Kirk Symonds, an educator with the Waste Resource Association of Nova Scotia.

The “Don’t Be a Prick” campaign uses jarring online videos to explain how an accidental prick from a needle sticking out of a garbage bag or travelling through a recycling line can change the lives of the people tasked with dealing with waste.

“One prick from a needle means a year of tests before I know whether or not I’m going to get sick,” said a waste collector featured in one of the videos. “That’s one year before I know I’m not going to infect someone I love.”

The videos all feature real workers from a facility in Colchester, N.S.

Symonds, who describes himself as a professional “trash talker,” said that not everyone realizes how dangerous an improperly discarded sharp can be.

“I was in a classroom the other day, and somebody asked me, ‘what is the scariest thing you’ve ever seen?’ And I think they were thinking of CSI-type things, but quite frankly, needles are the most terrifying thing that we see in the garbage,” he said.

“It’s actually disturbing. Everyone in our industry knows someone that’s been stuck with a needle, and we decided to do something about it.”

While Symonds says there are no statistics for needlestick injuries in Nova Scotia, there are nearly three injuries per 100 workers annually in the United States, leaving them at risk for blood-borne illnesses.

The habit of improperly discarding sharps does not escape people who should know better, he said, explaining that on one occasion, workers who had been regularly getting needle-filled pop bottles at a recycling plant were able to trace it back to a Nova Scotia nurse and her diabetic son.

“The big thing is, it’s completely preventable,” he said.

“In Nova Scotia, if you’re a residential sharps user — so if you have a condition that requires needles (including drug addiction) — you can get a sharps container at a pharmacy, you can fill it up, bring it back, and they’ll give you another one. It’s totally free.”

The Ontario Medical Association estimates that someone pricked by a needle contaminated with the hepatitis B virus has a six to 30 per cent chance of getting infected. That number is 1.8 per cent for hepatitis C, and 0.3 per cent chance for HIV.

With these risks in mind, Symonds said the campaign is resorting to strong language because asking politely has, so far, been ineffective.

“If our campaign said ‘please put your needles in a sharps container,’ we wouldn’t be getting the attention,” he said. “This is part of our education message all the time, but it doesn’t seem to be working. One needle prick is too many.”

There’s another aspect to the campaign as well: Symonds said it can be easy for people outside of the waste industry to forget that there are living, breathing people who are dealing with their waste, and are being put in harm’s way every day.

In one of the videos, a man at a recycling facility pointed out: “Your recyclables don’t disappear after they go to the curb. They come here. They come to us.”

Symonds said a big part of featuring workers at the curbside or a recycling facility will help shed some light on the process that goes into waste collection and processing.

“How many people have visited a landfill? How many people have visited a recycling line?” he said. “We’ve been very good at educating the public about it, but I think we have to demystify the whole process.”

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Symonds said the videos will be used in upcoming presentations the association will make about the dangers of improperly discarded sharps.

He added that he hopes the campaign will eventually pick up steam and spread across the country.

“There are really no other programs similar to this,” Symonds said. “We’re going to share it with anyone who wants it.”

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