City health workers may be forced to collect used drug syringes that end up as litter near “needle exchange” spots across the Big Apple under a new bill unveiled Thursday.
Council member Oswald Feliz’s new bill would require the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to come up with a plan to pick up the hundreds of needles that are often tossed aside on sidewalks or parks after they’re picked up at city-funded mobile syringe distrubution centers.
“Needle exchange programs can be life-saving, but we must ensure these programs are implemented responsibly,” said Feliz, who noted the exchanges don’t require users to hand in used needles before they get a new one.
“Communities should not have to cope with discarded used needles in our parks, libraries, and even school playgrounds – creating unwelcoming and unsafe environments for entire communities,” Feliz added.
The bill would require city health staff to work with providers of the city’s “syringe service programs” to develop a plan to pick up as many needles as they hand out even if they are not directly returned by drug users.
Still, Torres, who lives in the Tremont neighborhood of Feliz’ Bronx district, said the used needles are so bad in Richman Park he won’t let his niece and nephew near the area.
Tremont resident Isaiah Torres, 47, said there are so many used needles in Richman Park he won’t let his young niece and nephew near the greenspace.
“I never walk through this park with them because you don’t know what you’ll see,” Torres said, though with an Arctic cold snap and snow on the ground they’ve been less present.
“In the summertime it was really bad. You couldn’t walk through without seeing a needle on the floor,” he said.
But Torres said he wouldn’t want to be the one who has to pick up the used needles.
“That’s kind of crazy,” Torres told The Post. “I mean if you want to supply them then I guess you have to clean up after them, but you don’t know what diseases they have.”
The council member meanwhile called the park nearly “unusable” because of the amount of needles littering the lawn and playground. The Department of Sanitation doesn’t have the resources or the training to cope with the onslaught of dirty needles facing public spaces like Richman, Feliz said.
Feliz also said nearby elementary school, PS 28, has such a bad needle problem that school staff members arrive an hour before classes starts each morning to pick up the dirty syringes.
“This shouldn’t be acceptable under any circumstances,” Feliz said. “Students should not have to tiptoe their way to school to make it safely, and parents should not have to worry about their child’s safety when playing in a park playground. I’m proud to introduce this bill which will help ensure these programs are implemented responsibly.”
Alissa, who declined to give her last name, was walking with her daughter near the PS 28 Wednesday.
“It’s disgusting. No one wants to see needles on the floor,” the 30-year-old said.
“Kids are curious— you have the park one block from the school and it’s an elementary school,” she added.
Feliz’s proposal comes on the heels of a letter he sent a letter to the city’s health department last month complaining about a needle exchange site in front of a children’s library in his district.
His proposal, if passed and signed into law, would also direct the department to report how many needles were handed out and how many needles were collected.
A spokesperson for the department did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Tony Rodriguez, 57, who was recently walking through Richman, said he was skeptical the proposal would pass.
“Yeah right, you think anybody in their right mind is coming to clean up after a crack addict?” he said.
Still, he thinks the needles are a problem.
“This isn’t a park for children. This belongs to the addicts,” Rodriguez said.
