Expert in preventing and combating violence

Hypodermic needles pose a serious and realistic threat to domestic frontline professionals, such as private security, police, prison or civil enforcement officers and paramedics. Facing someone carrying any type of edged weapon can be classed as facing a ‘real problem’, but many of us will know someone who has been stabbed but who also has survived such assault. Unless you face someone who really know what he is doing, there is a realistic chance of surviving such type of assault. However, being attacked by random person, someone ‘unskilled’ waving a hypodermic needle at you and sticking it at anywhere into your body if of equal or even greater danger. This can indeed mean you are coming in contact with blood-borne pathogens such as HIV and Hepatitis C and this can potentially and subsequent result in you looking at the end of your life expectancy. In my personal and professional opinion this issue presents a realistic risk in today’s society. There are many recorded incidents of H