One typical morning at Flynns Beach in Port Macquarie changed everything for a seven year old boy and his family. The young lad found a strange object in the soft sand at the northern end of the beach.  A team leader from Port Macquarie Surf Lifesaving Club raced to snatch the object away from him, but it was too late.

Too often, children seem to find needles, carelessly discarded by IV drug users and others. The resultant sharps injury starts a ling and traumatic wait for the family, with additional blood tests and perhaps the need for unpleasant preventative drug treatments for a frightened child.

Children always seem to be attracted to discarded sharps, like a moth to a flame. Those discarded in snow and ice, in long grass, or in soft sand as in this incident, can be particularly difficult to locate and local authorities have great difficulty in their location and retrieval.

We have discussed this type of incident too often on the Clinical Waste Discussion Forum. It would be naïve to believe that this will be the last time, but we live in hope.

see also Needle risk hidden in snow, sand, grass

see also Needlestick on Australian beach

see also Sharps danger on Southend beach