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Raymond York is a worker and resident of Presque Isle
On the morning of Aug. 5, I was stuck by a discarded syringe while cleaning a public restroom during my shift at a restaurant here in Presque Isle.
I washed the wound, notified my manager, drove to Northern Light AR Gould for baseline testing for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV, and filed a report with the Maine Department of Labor. Television station WAGM covered the story also to warn other workers.
I am not writing to blame anyone. Addiction is a health issue and our downtown businesses did not create it. I am writing because this is a worker safety issue.
Discarded syringes are also being found in other areas of our community — in parks, in gas station bathrooms and in trash cans. I have talked to other workers who clean those same bathrooms and they have found them, too.
When you are making $18 an hour taking out trash, you should not have to worry about a needle stick that means months of testing and anxiety.
Every needlestick is an OSHA-recordable injury. Every baseline visit can cost $500 or more, even before follow-up testing at six weeks and three months. A locked, puncture-resistant sharps box costs about $60 and a quarterly pickup by a licensed medical waste company can cost less than a single ER bill.
Portland, Bangor and Lewiston solved this years ago. City-owned public restrooms are equipped with sharps collection boxes and they provide city-owned and other drop-off boxes and sites where syringes can be disposed of safely, no questions asked. Aroostook County has some safe disposal sites, but we don’t have visible boxes where the litter is actually happening.
Recently, I went to Presque Isle City Hall to ask the City Council to act. I did not get a chance to speak, so I am asking here.
I am asking the city of Presque Isle to do two simple, low-cost things: Add sharps containers to the city’s public restroom safety checklist for city buildings and for businesses licensed to have public restrooms; and identify a location and funding source for a 24-hour drop kiosk downtown, using opioid settlement funds where allowable.
No one should be stuck with a syringe at work for taking out the trash.