Addressing the concerns surrounding safe disposal of sharps

Syringes, needles and lancets are collectively referred to as sharp objects or “sharps.” They are used for the injection of different substances — legal or otherwise. The improper disposal of sharps is a major issue in any community, because substance users can use the used sharps for their next dose. Therefore, properly disposing sharps is critical to reducing the spread of blood-borne diseases, such as Hepatitis C and HIV, which are transmitted through contaminated needles as well.

However, according to the Harm Reduction Action Center in Colorado, the main issues in the way of safely disposing of sharps are “community opposition,” caused by fears that such programs “appear to condone drug use, make communities where they are located look bad, attract more drug users and dealers, and present opportunities for vandalism,” and the fear of arrest of substance abusers, resulting from paraphernalia laws.

Society has to keep in mind that these programs are mainly aimed at people who use sharps legally, as part of their health treatment plan — such as people suffering from diabetes, who need to inject themselves with insulin to survive. Without these disposal programs, people who use sharps legally could throw the sharps in the trash, which would result in substance users having better access to sharps — which can be contaminated in some cases. The community can use this as a justification for the existence of such programs, thus avoiding getting a smeared reputation because of associations between the existence of programs and substance abuse in the community.

To address this issue locally, the Montgomery County Health Department, 110 W. South Blvd., is running a sharps disposal program, offering sharps containers and on-site sharps disposal services free of charge. They are not the police, nor are they trying to get anyone arrested, as their goal is to protect the health of every inhabitant of Montgomery County. Confidentiality is insured at all times during sharps disposal visits to the Health Department. 

Just drop by any time between 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday to dispose of any sharps that you may have. There are also two more drop off locations, that run 24/7, for sharps disposal, at the Crawfordsville Police Department, 311 N. Green St. and at the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department, 600 Memorial Drive. The health department is also working on finding a third location for a public drop box for people to dispose of sharps in.

However, the community may provide opposition to such public drop boxes, as well as such programs in general, because they can see them as incentives to abuse substances. But, given the previous point — the fear of substance abusers properly disposing of sharps — such programs will not attract substance abusers and dealers. More likely, they will reduce the number of blood-borne disease cases in individuals, since they will have limited access to needles and syringes, contaminated or otherwise.

So, if you discover any syringes, needles or lancets, put them in sharps containers or bring them to the health department. The agency provides free sharps containers and free sharps disposal services.

If you find or have found sharps lying around in the community, complete the survey at www.

surveymonkey.com/r/MCHD_sharps to help the Health Department keep track of sharps lying around throughout the county. If you are outside the county, anywhere in the United States, you can access www.safeneedledisposal.org in order to find places where you can dispose of sharps within 100 miles of your ZIP code.

Alexandru Rotaru, a Wabash College student, is an intern with the Montgomery County Health Department.