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Streets of rogue syringes11/9/2023 ![]() ![]() The yellow boxes are as impenetrable as postal boxes, Dr. And I do not think our sanitation workers should be subject to the risk of needle injury.” The careless disposal of needles puts people at risk for needle sticks and accidental risk of infection or causes extreme anxiety about the potential risk of infection. “I do not think needles and syringes should be part of the habitat for the next generation of children. “I do not think that parks, playgrounds or the streets should be the deposit site for syringes and needles,” Dr. Morse said the drop boxes get needles and syringes off the streets and out of the waste stream. He called the newly reorganized public health division of the city’s health and human services department “a rogue agency going full-force the wrong way.”ĭr. “This is the harm reduction model, and we’re never going to support it,” Mr. Breault, founder and head of the Main South Alliance for Public Safety. Yellow boxes have drawn criticism from William T. ![]() “Let’s say the situation requires continued attempts at persuasion on my part.” The health commissioner hopes to place the additional four boxes at pharmacies, preferably ones in supermarkets with bottle redemption facilities. ![]() “We’ll have to come up with some solution there,” Dr. The Senior Center does not have hazardous waste pickup. Morse said he plans to talk to officials at the two health centers - both of which currently have hazardous waste collections - to determine if they are willing to take on the additional cost of disposed needles and syringes. ![]() The other three proposed yellow box locations are the Great Brook Valley Community Health Center, Tacoma Street the Family Health Center, Queen Street and the Senior Center, Providence Street.ĭr. “That was way beyond our budget,” he said Morse said one hazardous waste company contacted by his office quoted a collection price of $200 a month per box. The yellow box project has been funded entirely with a $10,000 grant from the Hoche-Scofield Foundation. Morse acknowledged “but we don’t want them outdoors where they could be vandalized.” Locating the box indoors could inhibit some addicts, Dr. He described the AIDS Project Worcester reception area as a “very ideal location” that may include an independent pharmacy in a few months. “Hopefully this will be a model for other partnerships in a community effort to promote the responsible disposal of syringes and needles by people who use them,” Dr. Morse said, and decided to incorporate the yellow box needle and syringe retrieval in its waste cost. The agency already has hazardous waste pickup at its headquarters, Dr. Morse said the unexpectedly high cost to retrieve what is considered hazardous waste stymied any installation until AIDS Project Worcester agreed to absorb the collection cost. The City Council unanimously approved placing the mailbox size drop boxes at four sites last December, but Dr. We’ve launched the first one, and we’ve begun a partnership with AIDS Project Worcester. “We were supposed to come online with four boxes in by January, and here it is May, and we have one, but it’s a monumental day. “Finally, finally, finally,” City Health Commissioner Dr. After a nearly five-month delay, the first yellow box to collect used hypodermic needles and syringes was installed yesterday in the reception area of AIDS Project Worcester at 85 Green St. ![]()
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