5 ms·

I would be concerned about dirty needles etc. as much as anything, especially in a place like San Francisco. Junkies can carry God-knows-what, but I can respec

• williamdclt 8y ago
  I mean I don't disagree, but living in a big city (London) it is •very* rare I see a needle in the street (once in the past year?). It never was on a walkable path, always in some sort of gutter. I'd assume the risk to be so close to zero it's negligible, I'd be more worried about breaking my toes hitting them on stuff
• jacobolus 8y ago
  There are some homeless drug addicts in our neighborhood and I would not be surprised at needles at night or early morning in some nooks or gutters here or there, but the only place I have seen needles in the middle of the day on the sidewalk is near Civic Center. Still, even if there were regularly needles lying around, the chances of stepping on a needle are vanishingly small. (Have you ever stepped on a needle while wearing shoes? People going barefoot are paying a lot closer attention to the ground.) The chances of picking up something from that are much smaller still. Needles pass diseases when people re-use them to inject stuff into their blood, not when they accidentally step on one. If worried about disease, there is probably a (still very tiny but) significantly higher risk of stepping on disease-carrying poop while having a cut on the foot.