SIR: I refer to the letters 'It's still a risk' and 'Needles' danger'.

Of course I sympathise with the families involved. I'm on your side. I apologise if you had the impression that I think it's all right to have discarded needles lying about. I do, however, worry about using the AIDS issue to highlight it.

I repeat that children are at risk from all sorts of infections from dirty needles. However HIV is actually a very weak virus outside of the body and needs to be injected inside the body to thrive. Hence sharing a needle, ie injecting blood directly from an infected person before the virus dies, is quite different from pricking the finger with the tip of a discarded needle. The other two methods of contracting the virus are from mother to unborn baby and unprotected sex (which since you asked, Mrs Birtwistle, was how my friend contracted it).

I am concerned too about naming children in the paper, leaving them open to prejudice and abuse, something that sadly I have also been only too aware of in the past.

So BEN and others, good luck with your campaign to clear up the needles but please think about who you might be harming along the way.

Mrs Gillian Bell

Mather Street

Kearsley, Bolton

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.