One of the questions I'm often asked when delivering training to drugs workers is "What are all the different needles for, and which is the best one to use". Although in a perfect world there would be a clear answer this is rarely the case as each person and each injecting site is unique, the best answer I normally manage is to give loose guidlines.

However Exchange Supplies in an attempt to make things a little clearer have produced a small guide to needles and syringes called "What Works"

It's not often you get some totally new equipment in a needle programme and the last thing I expected people to be innovative with was a sharps bin.

The new bin from Exchange Supplies is something which will change whole aspects of the way we work with used injecting equipment, not to mention the fact it is (in my opinion at least) a better bin from the injectors point of view.

As you’ll know if you’ve spent any time either working in a needle programme or injecting there are many different kinds of needle available.

The assumption is normally that the needle you’ve used in the past is always the best one for the job and most NSP workers will just go along with this, but at the end of the day not all needles are equal. This article will compare some of the main equipment you can get.

Every needle programme worker and every injector comes across them at some point, a needle that is either blunt or barbed before it’s even used.

But what should you do about it?