100 discarded drug needles found during Cape Breton municipality cleanup

An environmental organization that organizes cleanups in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality says it's found more used drug needles in a few daysthan it's previously found over an entire season of trash collecting.

Each spring and summer, the Trashformers,a group of students hired byACAPCape Breton, head out to clean up the municipality.

The highest number of discarded needles they've previously found over the court of an entire season is 70, according to ACAP's environmental co-ordinator, Caitlin O'Brien.

This year, she said, they found about 100 in justthree days. The needles were largely spottedin downtown Sydney, Whitney Pier and Bridgeport near Glace Bay.

"A lot of these needles were found in just a Sobeys bag with some other drug paraphernalia, just found in public areas, which was something we had never really encountered before," she said.

The find is even more disturbing, O'Brien said, given concerns about the spread of the powerful opioid, fentanyl.

"We're glad that we found this instead of kids that may not know better, " she said.

'It is a huge safety concern'

O'Brien said they met with bylaw officers in the CBRM who've cautioned them to stay away from any needles they find.

ACAP workers wear steel-toed boots and don't pick up anything without gloves, she said. Even so, no one on the crew is allowed to touch a needle for any reason. Instead, police are called to deal with it.

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O'Brien has the same warning for anyone who comes across a used needle.

"Especially with this new type of drug that we're finding in ourcommunity, you want to be very very careful," she said. "Always call those needles in to non-emergency [police]dispatch."