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B.C. father starts petition after son jabbed by needle he found outside

Jeff Arlitt has started an online petition calling for mandatory use of ‘vanish point needles’
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–– Kamloops This Week

Dog poop isn’t the only unpleasant item showing up as snow melts across Kamloops.

Used needles are also turning up in parks and other areas around the Tournamen Capital.

Jeff Arlitt said his 12-year-old son was pricked by a needle he found last week while playing with friends not far from his family’s Westsyde home on Collingwood Drive.

Arlitt’s son, Landon, was out with his stepbrothers when they came across a bag of candy that also contained needles. The boys decided to remove the bag of needles from the area and were carrying it home when Landon was pricked.

Arlitt took his boy to Royal Inland Hospital for treatment and testing, but won’t know for certain if he’s in the clear for weeks.

VIDEO: Surrey woman, 63, pricked by used needle

READ MORE: Child pricked by discarded needle at Victoria restaurant

“We were there for four or five hours,” Arlitt said. “They gave him a tetanus shot and did some blood work. He has to go back every couple weeks for the next two months for more blood work.”

Arlitt has started an online petition calling for the mandatory use of so-called vanish point needles, which are safer when discarded.

READ MORE: Island Health says no need for alarm over needle prick incidents in Victoria

It’s not the first time a child has been pricked by a discarded needle in the province. In 2016 a young boy was pricked by a needle outside his home in Maple Ridge.

Instructions on how to dispose of needles safely, provided by the B.C. Ministry of Health can be found here.

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