Apologies if you are receiving this message again, I received a message
informing me my original posting had been rejected.
Unfortunately the blue light may not deter drug use. Two reports (one by
professor Margaret Hamilton of Turning point Alcohol and Drug centre)
suggest that when blue lights are installed drug users may initially move
away from the toilet as a space to inject, but often return and begin using
more hazardous injecting practices, i.e. they stop injecting into their
veins and inject anywhere in their body. This increases the health risk to
drug users, (the report also mentions the use of UV pens to mark injection
sites in the veins) and doesn't alleviate the problem of using public
toilets for drug use.
(please let me know if you would like copies of these reports and I will
forward them on)
Also as well as the lights restricting access for people with visual
impairments, our research has revealed that people with urostomies and
colostomies are also excluded from these toilets. People with urostomies
and colostomies require good lighting in order to clean the area around
their stoma, hygiene is incredibly important to prevent a number of health
complications occurring and the blue light makes cleaning this area almost
impossible.
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