Mobile teams hired by the City of Boston to pick up discarded needles have seen a lot more of them since the start of the pandemic. Nearly 400,000 syringes were disposed of by the city in the first five months of this year, the Boston Public Health Commission told GBH News.
Most of the needles have been found in the area around the Boston Medical Center, known euphemistically as Methadone Mile because of nearby treatment centers and those who flock to them. Throughout the area bordering Massachusetts Avenue, the Southeast Expressway and Melnea Cass Boulevard, commonly known as Mass and Cass, city workers said they have seen an increase in the number of syringes on the streets, in parks and along sidewalks.
A spokesperson for SEIU-Local 888, which represents some of the workers, said that mobile teams have seen more needles in the pandemic and that there is concern about the danger this poses. He declined to comment beyond that and the union did not make any workers available for comment.
Residents of the South End said they are also concerned. Karen Cota was walking in the neighborhood with her infant daughter in her arms in the vicinity of Peters Park.
"Yes, like my little one-year old baby she kinda grabs everything and I don’t want her grabbing the wrong thing from the ground," she said. "Peters Park here, is like the only big playground park in the South End and there's been a couple of needles in the playground area that we've been trying to dodge."
Another resident — who declined to give her name but said she works as a public health scientist — said the explosion of opiates was harmful to everyone in the area.
"I feel concerned about the well-being of the people in the neighborhood who might be using the needles and concerned about the children in the area as well. Both," she said. "This was one of our concerns when we were considering living here."
She moved to the South End three years ago. Another resident, Roberto Portocarrero, has lived there a lot longer. He described the reported proliferation of used needles on the street as "horrible."
But Portocarrero said he was encouraged by what he said was an increased Boston Police presence in the neighborhood.
"The police presence, it's been great," he said. "I think that has helped immensely. ... The police is always here, just making rounds."
But Portocarrero said that he had only seen a slight decrease in needles on the streets, even with stepped-up police patrols.
Caitlin McLaughlin, Director of Media Relations for the Boston Public Health Commission, said COVID-19 exacerbated an already difficult dilemma for individuals dealing with addiction "as we suddenly faced this global pandemic in the middle of the opioid epidemic," she wrote.
In a statement to GBH News, McLaughlin said, "Our neighbors who were already struggling with substance use disorder, mental health issues and homelessness faced unprecedented obstacles. We saw an increase in street activity during the pandemic because of the closure of daytime services, reduced access to treatment and shelters, increased releases from jails and prisons, closure of courts, and closure of public restrooms and access to bathrooms."
McLaughlin said the city-sponsored AHOPE program, which stands for Access, Harm Reduction, Overdose Prevention and Education, "collects more needles than we give out in our needle exchange and work with our clients to help them understand the importance of safe needle disposal." She added that the program had 115% return rate for syringes.
Boston health agencies have additionally dispatched that they call "Mobile Sharps Teams" to collect thousands of needles, 7 days a week, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. In January, Boston initiated a syringe redemption program in the Mass and Cass area that offers a cash incentive for the safe disposal of syringes. McLaughlin says that, from then until May, 371,000 syringes were safely collected, sterilized and shredded.
But many South End residents complain that these efforts have not eased ongoing worries about the disposal of needles in parks, playgrounds, school yards, and on their streets and stoops.
