Local elected officials get hundreds of constituent calls a week, but one day seven years ago, I was working for a County Supervisor and got a truly terrifying call. A woman and her husband were remodeling a house that they had just bought from an elderly woman. Their general contractor began to demolish a wall in their home and a cascade of needles came streaming to the floor.

Apparently, the woman who sold them the house was diabetic and injected insulin once a day. This woman knew that disposing of "sharps" in her household garbage was dangerous, so instead, she drilled holes in her wall and placed her needles there. After spending days investigating how to help this couple safely dispose of these needles, I found out there just wasn't that many community resources or laws on the books to help guide us.

But now, Governor Schwarzenegger has an opportunity help one million people in California by signing SB 486 (sponsored by District 11 Senator Joe Simitian), now sitting on his desk. This bill is an important measure that will help consumers get better information about how to safely dispose of used needles and syringes. Each year, an estimated one million Californians inject medications outside traditional health care facilities generating more than 389 million used needles.

This bill requires drug companies that market and sell prescribed medications that are routinely injected at home to submit plans to the California Integrated Waste Management Board describing how they support safe needle collection and disposal programs for patients using their drugs. They must further make this information available on their web sites. This will help inform those of us with HIV who inject enfuvirtide (Fuzeon) and those with hepatitis B or C who inject conventional or pegylated interferon (Intron A, PegIntron, Pegasys).

As of September 1, 2008, it is illegal to throw away sharps in household garbage. However, many cities and counties in California do not have sharps disposal programs of any kind, leaving many individuals that self inject with no way to dispose of their sharps. In addition, in cities and counties where there are collection sites, they may be located in places difficult to get to for disabled people or not accessible at all for individuals who are home-bound. Although private mail-back programs are available, they may be too costly for low-income individuals.

We think that this legislation will provide a necessary first step toward assuring efficient, effective and accessible disposal alternatives for at-home injection users. The drug companies that make these medicines -- and make billions of dollars selling them -- can and should do their part to help. It is a modest, reasonable measure, and the governor should sign it.

Lara Sim is Chair of the California Sharps Coalition, a group dedicated to advocating for safe needle disposal.

9/25/09