Kids expecting to find treats hidden by the Easter bunny at a playground in Southeast Portland's Woodstock neighborhood on Sunday, April 16, instead found a water bottle holding syringes with used needles attached.

One of the parents posted a photo on Facebook, along with the wry comment: "Welcome to the big city."

The bottle was hidden in bushes in a playground across from Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church.

Geoffrey and Molly Halsey, who posted the photo, brought their two children to the playground to join friends. Soon after the kids started their search, one of the boys returned to the adults holding the bottle.

Molly Halsey recalls the boy saying, "Look what I found." Many of the mothers in the group are nurses and knew to dispose of the contents. They saw that several of the needles had not been uncapped. The new ones were mixed with used ones.

"As nurses, we know not to come in direct contact with used needles since there's a risk of exposure to Hepatitis C and other highly communicable diseases," Halsey said. "We were horrified, but grateful the needles weren't just laying there, as we have seen elsewhere."

Molly's mother, Rosemary Parker, who lives north of Kalamazoo, Michigan, said on Monday that she expected to see Facebook photos of her grandchildren searching for Easter eggs, but instead she saw a photo of “this nasty thing.”

If you find a syringe near your home or park, call the Multnomah County Health Department at 503-988-3030 or safely pick up the used needle using the following steps (watch the video):

Never pick the syringe up with your bare hands. Use gloves, tongs or pliers.

Do not break the needle off the syringe.

Always put a syringe in a hard plastic container, either a sharps container or 20-ounce plastic water or juice bottle with a lid.

Place the container on the ground -- do not hold-- and drop the syringe in it.

Tape the bottle shut. Write on the outside "Sharps Do Not Recycle."

— Janet Eastman



jeastman@oregonian.com

503-799-8739

@janeteastman



