This used hypodermic needle was found on a Kelowna woman's property in 2015.

Image Credit: Julie Cancela

VERNON - A Vernon city councillor says Interior Health’s claim that it properly disposes of 99 per cent of needles is misleading and suggests they change it.

Coun. Scott Anderson questioned health officials about the figure at a council meeting last week, following a report by iNFOnews.ca that explained how the 99 per cent claim was calculated.

READ MORE: Hundreds of thousands of Interior Health needles remain unaccounted for

“That was really an approximation,” medical health officer Dr. Silvina Mema admitted. “In the notification memo we sent out we said “roughly 99 per cent” of the needles are back and that created a lot of questions as to how exactly we know 99 per cent, and we couldn’t really answer that question.”

Interior Health arrived at 99 per cent by calculating the percentage of improperly discarded needles found in the community from the total number ordered by the health authority for a particular area. Interior Health says the number of needles found equates to less than one per cent, leaving the assumption that 99 per cent are in fact properly disposed of.

Coun. Anderson said he owns a company that cleans up private property in Vernon and anecdotally, he finds many needles.

“There are needles everywhere,” he said. “I have trouble with 99 per cent. I have trouble with the concept of supplying 99 per cent, even with an adjective like roughly in front of it. I think “most” would probably be more appropriate, because there are all sorts of needles going to the landfill that I’m sure don’t pass through your hands.”

Mema said needles are not supposed to go into the garbage but agreed Anderson’s point was a fair comment.

“The 99 per cent was perhaps not the happiest way to communicate it…. We are data driven people and we are used to speaking to data, and the roughly 99 per cent was more of a colloquial lay-way of portraying it which is perhaps (not the best way),” Mema said.

Mema said she is confident, however, that “most” of the needles supplied by Interior Health are retrieved and properly disposed of by their contractor Stericycle. Anderson suggested “most” would be a more suitable term than 99 per cent.

“(It’s) essentially not true,” Anderson said. “That’s misleading, frankly.”

To help address the issue of discarded needles, Interior Health is providing two industrial needle drop boxes to be installed in Vernon.

Needle buy-back programs are being tested in other communities like Kamloops and Penticton, however Interior Health has expressed concerns about that method.

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