City workers in Port Coquitlam are carefully searching local parks and playgrounds after a child was pricked by a used hypodermic needle.
The child’s skin was punctured during a daycare field trip to Fox Park, where the needle was buried in the gravel.
City Councillor Glenn Pollock said he was very concerned about the incident.
"I have four grandchildren and it horrifies me, the thought of being pricked with one of those needles," he told CTV News Thursday.
When CTV News went to see the condition of the park, we quickly discovered a glass tube commonly used to smoke crack cocaine.
The city says staff started patrolling the park daily after a series of similar complaints filed months ago. Pollock is pledging to double staff sweeps of the area and says employees are now making a point of searching the gravel.
"They'll be using hard rakes, the ones with the tines, to sweep through the pea gravel," Pollock said.
"We're actually going to do that in all our parks in the next few days to make sure there's no other thing – sharps, broken bottles, who knows what – in the pea gravel."
While the field trip incident is alarming, Fraser Health's medical health officer said the needle is not cause for panic.
"Port Coquitlam has a relatively low rate of inappropriately discarded needles," Dr. Ingrid Tyler said.
And Tyler added the risk of disease transmission from a needle stick is very low.
"There are no reported cases of transmission of HIV or Hepatitis C or any other disease from a needle stick in the community," she said.
Fraser Health said they'd already looked into the incident and found that the daycare, The School of Early Learning, acted appropriately. Staff searched the area for needles and found none, so the health authority considers the matter closed.
Officials also notified the child's parents and got medical attention as expected.
As the opioid epidemic has grown, a surge of used needles tossed in parks and public spaces has become a concern in virtually every community.
"That's all the more reason why we need to have a big focus on harm reduction, to support people who are living with additions in this overdose crisis," Minister of Mental Health and Drug Addiction Judy Darcy said.
"And at the same time, to make sure there are safe ways of disposing of these needles which can happen in harm reduction sites."
With a report from CTV Vancouver's Penny Daflos
