The Midlothian Council sharps health & safety document is excellent and worth a review when updating your own local authority documentation.
It is brief and to the point, clear and concise, and covers all the bases. Regrettably it does not give contact information, give contact details for the appropriate Council department that might arrange collection and disposal of needles and syringes, or list the addresses of local Accident & Emergency Departments. And the document takes a bit of finding, buried deep in the Council website at Home/Downloads/Education and learning/Education policies/Policy guidelines/Health and safety/Health and safety.
Download here.
Its a rather stark contrast between such a carefully crafted document and the advice given by the Council to those who might find some discarded sharps. Since the public must act as the eyes and ears of the Council, having clear information on the Council website about who to contact is invaluable if discarded sharps and other drug litter is to be cleared quickly and safely.
But go to the Midlothian Council website and bang your head against the proverbial brick wall.
Try the A to Z of services. L for Litter is not listed. Nor is S for Sharps, N for Needles or S for Syringe.
Go to W for Waste collections or R for Refuse collections and click on Clinical Waste – you are there told that the Council does not collect clinical waste so that’s a bit of a dead end.
If you haven’t given up by now you might find ‘Street care and cleaning’ but this doesn’t appear in the A to Z or services so its a bit hit and miss. At least there is an address, email and phone number on this page, but no mention of sharps finds and this may cause confusion to Joe Public who wants to do the right thing.
The best bet is D for Dumb Dumpers. Obvious really, though this seems intended more for fly tipping incidents that sharps finds. However, you then jump to a separate Dumb Dumpers website and can report a needle find online. Who knows if the report will be actioned, or passed back to be reported by some other route? This doesn’t serve the community well, which is a shame and sits in contrast to the excellent health & safety sharps document.
Perhaps it is about time that the LA CW audit 2011 was repeated?