Pre-schoolers to hospital after syringe find

Three five-year-old children were tested for disease in western Sweden after they were found playing with syringes they had uncovered in their pre-school bin on Monday morning.

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The three children found the syringes, as well as a bag containing “blood-like liquid”, at a pre-school in Mölndal, south of Gothenburg.

The children were immediately sent to hospital for testing after it was discovered that one of the children tasted the contents of the bag, and one of the syringes contained blood.

“This is horrible,” said Victoria Belin Benninge, one of the five-year-olds' parents, to the Göteborgs-Posten newspaper (GP).

“But something always has to happen before it raises a discussion. I see it as a political issue. How many pre-school teachers do we have per child?”

Furthermore, the mother took issue with the fact that the children were even allowed access to the bins in the first place, and reported the incident to the police.

”I don’t understand why there are garbage bins in a pre-school playground. And I don’t understand why the staff members don’t go around in the morning to check what’s in them. Especially after a weekend,” Benninge told the paper.

Anders Lindroth, head of the pre-school, explained that the bins were put in place several years ago after syringes were found in the school’s sand pit.

“It’s extremely unfortunate what’s happened. But given what’s happened in the past, the bin location has been the best alternative,” he said, adding that the school has three teachers for 19 children.

Lindroth explains that the school is now planning to exchange the bins with a model where litter can be placed by the public, but not removed.

Meanwhile, Lindroth told the paper that the children will no longer be allowed to play in the playground each morning until the caretaker has emptied the bins.

The Local/og
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