Sifting sand not enough to eliminate needle threat

Though sandy beaches are sifted once a week for dangerous objects such as syringes, the threat of being pricked by a drug addict's used needle remains and there is very little one can do about it.

"I suppose the only thing you can do is not walk around a sandy beach barefooted, and preferably wear trainers not flip-flops. Obviously you also have to be very careful when playing in the sand," Primary Health director Denis Vella Baldacchino said yesterday.

His comments were made in the wake of the story in The Times reporting that British tourist Bill Gillespie was pricked while building sandcastles with his two young daughters in Pretty Bay.

Mr Gillespie, an athlete, was devastated when he pulled out his hands from the sand to find a syringe jutting out from his palm. He said something needed to be done to protect people from being injured by the carelessness of others.

Dr Vella Baldacchino said such incidents increased in summer but throughout the year there were also reports of children being pricked in playing fields and in the countryside.

"Sometimes you can have two in a day, but then you can have a long period without any reports. It's not regular so it's difficult to give an estimate of how often it happens," he said.

When someone is pricked by a needle, a number of blood tests are carried out to check for infections such as HIV and hepatitis.

However, such viruses do not last very long outside a living body, so the risk of contracting one of these viruses diminishes the longer the needle remains exposed.

HIV generally lasts for a few minutes but hepatitis can last up to 36 hours, making the risk of contracting it from a discarded needle much higher.

"I think what's worse is the psychological impact this has on you," Dr Vella Baldacchino said.

The best thing to do was to try and instil a sense of conscientiousness with drug addicts so they dispose of their needles safely.

"My message is this: I don't care about what you do to have fun, but don't put other people at risk," he said.

A spokesman for the Resources Ministry said sand-sifting took place once a week at all the main sandy beaches. The specialised equipment sifts all the sand for objects such as syringes, going right down to the soil level.

But since this happens weekly, if a needle is discarded the day after the sifting, it may remain there for a whole week before it is removed.

Syringes have been freely distributed in Malta since the 1980s, and the figures suggest that between 600 and 750 syringes are collected from health care centres every day.

The government has been trying to find ways of encouraging the proper disposal of needles but this is always difficult because drug addicts live in constant fear of being tracked by the police.

So far, needles can be disposed of at the three civic amenity sites in Mrieħel, Magħtab and Ħal Far, but there are plans to create more sites.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com