A photo posted to social media on July 29, 2019, shows a person hanging from a Diabetes Canada donation bin near Brock Secondary School.

Image Credit: FACEBOOK/ Brock Watch

KAMLOOPS — The photo of a woman plunged headfirst into a North Kamloops clothing donation bin has been circulating around social media and is once again raising questions around how the misuse of these bins could potentially cause injury or death.

The picture may appear comical to some, but to the operators of the donation bin, Diabetes Canada, it’s an incident that happens all too often and prompted the charity to retrofit all their bins across Canada to avoid future deadly consequences.

"What we did was restrain the opening so you could no longer climb headfirst into the bins and try to either remove the clothing...or in some cases some folks were using the bins to sleep in them," Diabetes Canada director of business development Scott Ebenhardt says.

The national charity spent approximately two weeks retrofitting more than 4,000 donation bins across the country in an effort to prevent injury or death in January, including the bins scattered around Kamloops.

Since the bins have been modified, there have been no reports of death, Ebenhardt says. 

“Historically we have had a death in bins as have other charities have,” he says, adding he believes there has been a total of seven deaths.

Ebenhardt says the charity made the decision to redesign the donation bins in an effort to prevent people from becoming trapped inside of them. The charity has two styles of bins, a rolling chute and a mail chute bin, both of which exist in Kamloops.

Ebenhardt says the woman in the photo is seen dangling from a mail chute-style bin, which is easy to get in and out of.

“When I see the picture I’m pleased that I don’t have to worry about their safety because you can get in and out and it’s been reviewed by an engineer if something bad could happen,” he says. “Going forward we are going to be manufacturing just the rolling chute bin which is not possible to get into.”

Diabetes Canada was one of the first organizations in Canada to retrofit their donation bins after deaths caused by individuals becoming trapped inside donation bins became prevalent in the media.

A man was found dead inside of clothing donation bin in West Vancouver on Dec. 31, 2018, according to a CBC report. The man was found stuck partway in the opening of the bin.

Although the individual may be attempting to take items from the bin, Ebenhardt says the most important thing is their safety. 

"Most of the operators in this business have now removed their bins or have had them retrofitted, certainly the ones with pinch points," he says. 

Overall, Ebenhardt says B.C. has more incidents of individuals getting stuck inside clothing donation bins than other areas.

“Generally B.C. has a tougher time because there are probably more folks that are living on the street than in other provinces,” he says.

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News from © iNFOnews, 2019