One downtown worker is warning others to be careful when cleaning up trash left lying near their businesses, after she found used medical personal protective equipment – including a bloodstained medical mask – in a heap of other trash.
Shandra Murphy said when she arrived on Friday at the Sixth Avenue business where she works, her employer asked her to clean up a pile of debris left by the dumpster in the parking area behind the building. She put on rubber gloves and started picking up the trash, and only realized she was holding medical waste once she picked it up.
"A lot of people leave stuff. I was just cleaning it up... (and noticed) there was plastic medical gowns, those caps they wear, masks – one had blood on it," Murphy said. "I find it really disgusting. My coat is in a garbage bag now, because it touched my coat."
Murphy instinctively chucked all the material into the dumpster, then realized she probably should have dropped it immediately when she knew what it was.
"I went, 'oh (expletive) that was a bad idea,'" Murphy said.
She said went inside, removed her coat that had touched the material, carefully disposed of her rubber gloves and washed up immediately. Then she phoned the B.C. nurse's hotline and WorkSafeBC to report the incident.
A spokesperson for the City of Prince George said residents can report issues like discarded needles or other biohazardous materials found on public property by phoning 311, going online to www.princegeorge.ca/City%20Services/Pages/ReportaProblem.aspx or using the City of Prince George mobile app.
