NEEDLESS RISK

OLIVER -- Randy Asling knows it only takes a poke from one hypodermic
needle to turn a life upside down

And though he's been trying for more than three years to convince
local authorities to install disposal containers in public parks,
they don't agree it is necessary

Asling was removing garbage from Lion's Park in October 1994 when he
was stabbed by a dirty needle that he believes led to his contracting
hepatitis C

"My job was to keep the parks clean, and that is what I was doing
that morning," Asling said

He was about to change the garbage in the park's container, but
several plastic grocery bags were blocking the lock and keeping the
container closed

"I grabbed a handful, and that's when the needle went into my thumb,"
Asling said

He was wearing gloves, but they were not the ones currently
recommended by Worker's Compensation -- and they offered no
protection against the disease

"There was blood in the needle, and it went into my body," Asling said

It was the late '90s when Asling started to notice his health decline

"I started losing weight, and I started losing ambition. My whole
body starting doing weird things." His doctors tested him for
diabetes, and thought he was becoming depressed. But a liver stress
test in 2001 showed him to have hepatitis C

Since then, Asling has started on a heavy treatment program, hoping
it will extend his life by 10 years. It's a hard treatment that takes
a year to complete and includes weekly injections and pills that
attack his immune system

"I'm having a hell of a time with it," he said. "Imagine a three-or
four-year-old." It's his concern for others that has led him to
approach the town and the Interior Health Authority to install
containers in the parks

Asling admits it isn't a perfect solution, but he thinks it might
help. Sure, a drug user might not bother putting the needle away --
but he thinks others might

"What about a mother who comes into the park, sees (the needle) and
puts it in the garbage?" he said

An unprotected needle in the garbage is dangerous. Asling also thinks
the presence of the containers -- and the addition of signs at the
park entrance -- might remind parents to have a quick look around
before letting their kids run loose

Oliver Mayor Linda Larson said Interior Health did a study and
determined there aren't enough needles to warrant the containers

"The only time they find them is in that brief summer window, and
they never find any the rest of the year . . . the ones they find are
less than half a dozen, so that's why it seemed a little bit
excessive to be putting disposal boxes up everywhere," Larson said

"There doesn't seem to be (enough of a problem in Oliver) as far as
needles go." Dr. Paul Hasselback, the senior medical health officer
with Interior Health, agreed. "(The health nurse who studied the
issue) actually spent a fair bit of time trying to get information
from people . . . the parks people, emergency responders that
actually interact with needs that have been identified and, despite
an expression of significant concern, there's only been a handful of
needles she had been able to identify being picked up over the years.
So, clearly, there wasn't a big issue with relation to needles," he
said. Larson said the small number of needles found in town is the
reason there are no containers, but that doesn't mean there isn't a problem

"Drugs can be administered other ways than by needles . . . we
acknowledge, as every community in the province does, that there are
drug issues, but the needle one -- public health did a really
comprehensive look into it," said Larson. "As far as we are
concerned, with all of the issues there are today, it wasn't a
newsworthy item." Asling doesn't understand the mayor's reaction. He
said he is proof positive it doesn't take more than one needle --
never mind half a dozen -- to turn a life upside down

He insists it is certainly an issue. "Oh, it is," Asling said without
missing a beat. "Wait until her granddaughter gets poked."