Daycare coordinator Kathy Arsenault urges parents to educate their children about the danger of needles. Credit: Elise Schulzke.

Ottawa’s drug problem is “disconcerting” to a daycare provider who has found used syringes in her school’s yards.

At least 35 publically run daycares are located within 150 metres of where syringes have been found in the past few years, a number one care provider calls “startling”.

Many daycares in Ottawa are situated close to where used syringes have been found. Map created with data from the City of Ottawa Open Data Portal and Access to Information Requests. Credit: Elise Schulzke.

“I find it really disturbing,” said Kathy Arsenault, coordinator of the Vanier Cooperative School Age Program. She added that she has found about 6 needles on daycare property in the two decades she’s worked there.

Since 2011, the City of Ottawa and the syringe retrieval program “needle hunters” have collected about 60,000 improperly discarded sharps from public places. Of those, 80 per cent were found the in Rideau-Vanier area.

Used sharps often carry HIV and Hepatitis C, which are transmitted via the blood of an infected person. About 80 per cent of Ottawa’s regular drug users are suffering from one the two illnesses and the contaminate can live on a needle for two months after injection.

It is illegal to dispose of syringes and crack pipes in standard garbage, so the city provides over 70 needle drop boxes at various locations around the city. The black, mailbox-looking stands have been key in cleaning up the streets, said Craig Calder, an Ottawa Public Health safety leader.

“We try to publicize the use of the boxes,” he said. He continued that the city added 12 new boxes at the end of last year, which is encouraging proper disposal of used needles.

Despite the new boxes, the city reported that almost half of Ottawa’s 5,600 regular drug users inject in public spaces. It’s this statistic that has Arsenault concerned.

Created with data taken from the Problematic Substance Use 2016 report from the City of Ottawa. Credit: Elise Schulzke.

“We have to do sweeps and checks to ensure it’s safe to play,” she said, explaining the lengthy clean up the teachers conduct before letting the children outside. She said she realizes the daycare’s neighbourhood has a reputation for “salacious activity”.

Her daycare was advised by Ottawa Public Health to invest in proper needle disposal equipment -like leather gloves and metal tongs- which they did about a decade ago.

A study conducted in Montreal found that more than 270 children had been accidentally stabbed with used syringes between 1995 and 2006, though none contracted an infection. Ottawa has seen at least a dozen such incidents in the last several years.

But the risks aren’t panicking everyone. Alexandra Soto said she isn’t “too worried” about her three-year-old son, who goes to daycare in Orleans.

“It would make me concerned if they found syringes,” she said. “But it could also happen on anyone’s front lawn.”

Calder agrees that it is unlikely a child would find a needle. “We’ve never had any complaints from parents or daycares about syringes,” he said.

Arsenault’s hands-on experience tells her otherwise.

Ten years ago she took her daycare on a walk to the grocery store three blocks away. On their way home, a child saw a needle near the sidewalk and reached down to grab it. Arsenault said that close call is part of the reason she feels it’s important to educate children.

“You can’t get people to stop doing drugs, but you can teach your children,” she said firmly. Because of their precocious nature, parents and teachers should “tell them what it is and why not to touch it.”

There are no municipal or provincial licensing regulations regarding proximity of daycares to locations with known drug activity. “Each daycare provider is responsible for determining their location,” said Courtney Ferguson, a media relations spokesperson for the city. “The Ministry of Education is then responsible for licensing that location.”

The Ottawa Police were unable to comment if drug use in the city was increasing, though charges related to cocaine, heroin and crystal meth have all gone up in the last year.

“All we can do is educate our children” Arsenault repeated.