**CITY OF TIMMINS AND PORCUPINE HEALTH UNIT NEWS RELEASE**

Increasing concern about the number of sharps being found in the community has prompted a partnership between the City of Timmins and the Porcupine Health Unit (PHU).
Since 2016, the two organizations have been working together and with Timmins Police Services in order to track the number of sharps being found, and the primary locations of concern within the city. With a rising number of sharps not being disposed of properly, PHU installed of a large sharps disposal unit in front of their building last summer. Since then, the teams have been working together to acquire additional units and determine the most suitable locations.
Two new disposal units have recently been installed in the parking lots on Cedar and Algonquin and Spruce and Algonquin (next to the overpass).

“We want to encourage all individuals who use needles for drugs or medication administration to dispose of them in a safe way,” said public health nurse and Sexual Health/Harm Reduction Program Coordinator Mary France Caron-Bruneau. “There are many ways to do this. Pharmacies have a program that provides sharps containers and accepts returns of these sharps containers. Individuals using drugs can get sharps containers from the health Unit and return them here as well through our needles exchange program (NEP) or in the disposal bin. If needles are found in the community, individuals can safely dispose of them through our NEP program or in our disposal bin after hours and on weekends or can call us to get a community clean-up kit which includes instructions on how to safely handle needles, a sharps container and a pair of tongs.”

Residents are strongly encouraged to continue reporting any sharps found in the community to the Timmins Police Service. The two new bin locations were carefully considered by the two organizations, but have the potential of being moved if necessary.

Filed under: Local News