The Central Library in London, Ontario has installed syringe disposal boxes in the washrooms there, in an effort to protect the safety of staff and the public. Ann Becker, chief executive officer of the London Public Library, told the press yesterday, “We know the reality is that drugs are present in our society. The last thing you want is a needle left on the floor and someone picking it up.”
Story from the London Free Press with reactions–both positive and negative, and a follow-up article here …
…and yet another column against the disposal bins, saying that they “send the wrong message.”
Condition of their patrons
If they are already getting all the needles mentioned in the article, what condition are these patrons in? Is library staff in danger of being attacked by a highly volatile library patron that just injected in the bathrooms?
I saw them….
I saw them in the airport bathrooms in DC (well Virginia – IAD) on the way to Buffalo a few weeks ago. Being an RN seeing a sharps container is not odd, but seeing one in the airport bathroom was a bit unusual. I thought it was nice that they made life easier for insulin dependent diabitics.
If they intended them for drug abusers perhaps they should have put some pamphlets up about drug treatment options. Nobody wants to be a drug addict, some people find it easy to be one though. If only one person of the many drug abusers who see the sharps containers and pamphlets avails themselves of the service of the treatment services …. well then that person won’t have their life ruined by drug abuse. Sounds good to me.
Stranger things…
I worked at an academic library where we found an entire bag of needles (about 12 of them) in our book drop one morning. Of course a year before we had problems with custodians finding needles tossed in the trash cans in the bathrooms. We never could figure out if it was a negligent insulin patient or a literate junky responsible — but the disposal boxes would have been nice either way.
not the best impression 🙂
I remember when we moved to Iowa City from Portland, I went into the restroom at the public library there and noticed the needle receptacles. It seemed very strange and offputting–I was moving from the heroin capital of the U.S. (supposedly) to this small midwestern town and they were all worried about dirty needles in the bathroom! They were also the first place that I saw security guards in the library. The midwest is a strange place for us wild westerners.