NEW YORK — New York City sanitation workers are reporting an increase in needle-stick injuries; a trend the city’s Sanitation Department says may be linked to a growing number of residents using needles for GLP-1 weight-loss medications.<\/p>\n
“That’s one of my biggest fears as a sanitation worker, is reaching for a bag and getting poked with something,” sanitation worker Jason Leavy said.<\/p>\n
According to the New York City Department of Sanitation, 49 workers have been pricked by needles so far this year. Over the past three years, 140 employees have experienced needle-stick injuries.<\/p>\n
Department officials said the injuries are preventable and have launched a public service announcement campaign to educate residents about proper needle disposal.<\/p>\n
“And that’s unacceptable and very easily avoidable,” a Sanitation Department representative said in the PSA.<\/p>\n
The department is urging customers to dispose of used needles in hard plastic Sharps containers. Residents also can use an empty laundry detergent bottle labeled “household sharps, do not recycle.”<\/p>\n
At Long Island Jewish Medical Center, doctors within the Northwell Health system said endocrinologists already educate patients about proper needle disposal. However, they noted an overall 11% increase in patients using GLP-1 medications.<\/p>\n
“I think we’re coming up against new risks that we didn’t know existed and trying to reduce the harm to anybody,” said Adam Berman of Long Island Jewish Medical Center.<\/p>\n
As an added measure, the Sanitation Department is seeking increased fines for people who improperly dispose of needles.<\/p>\n
The issue came as a surprise to some residents.<\/p>\n
“That’s scary, dangerous and I don’t agree with that,” said Francis Nunez of Elmont.<\/p>\n
“They need to give them something to put the needles in,” said Christine Thomas, of New Hyde Park.<\/p>\n
When asked whether more education is necessary, Thomas said, “Yes, absolutely.”<\/p>\n
City sanitation officials say proper disposal practices can help reduce the risk of needle-stick injuries and improve safety for workers handling the city’s trash.<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2026 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK — New York City sanitation workers are reporting an increase in needle-stick injuries; a trend the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[123525,9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-328528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-123525","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}