Report: 4 Year Old Has Corralitos Needle Stick Injury

SANTA CRUZ - A vigilant civic group intent on alerting the public to the dangers of local hypodermic waste said Saturday a 4 year old girl has been stuck with a needle left in a public place in Santa Cruz County.

Take Back Santa Cruz says the girl was poked with an old syringe she found while playing in Aldridge Park in Corralitos.

According the group’s Needles Solutions Team, this is the eighth confirmed needle stick injury, and fourth to a child, in Santa Cruz County since their reporting records began 37 months ago.

The group says when the girl’s mother realized what had happened, the girl told her “Mom, it didn’t hurt.”

After some time in the emergency room, doctors apparently determined the needle appeared “old”, the injury was not deep, and the girl was at “less than 0.01 % risk.”

Take Back Santa Cruz says Aldridge Park is located approximately 5.3 miles from the County’s Syringe Services Program (SSP) located in Watsonville. The SSP dispenses free, clean syringes to drug users in an effort to prevent the transmission of diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis via the sharing of dirty drug needles.

In letters sent to the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and the Santa Cruz City Council last week, the Needles Solutions Team says it found 242 needles in the most recent monthly reporting period.

Among the significant finds:

• A man who lives on Market Street found a needle in his driveway, and another in a jacket in a tree on his property.
• 8 needles were found outside Safeway on Morrissey.
• A nine year old found a needle in her front yard at her home in the Morrissey neighborhood.
• City workers found two needles in the Rose Garden at City Hall.
• There were numerous reports of needles found on Seabright Beach. This includes a find by a mother and her two children while they were making a drift wood fort on the beach.
• Many of the photographs associated with these reports show that SSP water capsules were also found along with the needles.

Hot Spot NIPS Locations for Reporting Periods 37:

• Seabright Beach was hands-down the “hottest” spot for citizen needle finds this month.
• Depot Park
• Harvey West Park
• Levee
• San Lorenzo Park restrooms
• Beach Street restrooms
• Cowell Beach
• Rivermouth

Overview of Last 37 Months:

• Total Number of Needles Reported Found: 9,694
• Average Number of Needles Found Per Month: 262
• Source of needles: Again, based on the frequent presence of other items from the SSP such as water capsules, cookers, and alcohol wipes, we conclude that a significant number of needles found in public spaces likely originated from the SSP (and obviously were not returned for exchange.) However, there are other needles being found that do not match those given out by the SSP, so there are presumably other sources of discarded needles.

-image via Take Back Santa Cruz NST