The state Department of Health is reconsidering its public notification policy for medical waste following the discovery of dozens of IV needles at Hau Bush in 'Ewa Beach last week.

State and city crews were dispatched to the area last Wednesday and Thursday, and the Coast Guard swept the area on Friday. Health officials spoke with residents, but no signs were posted or alerts issued to the community, even though people continued to pick the 3-inch needles off the beach yesterday and Monday.

"We are going to be reviewing our policy," state health director Chiyome Fukino said yesterday.

"It's not an insignificant amount of needles that have been found. It now poses a new question for us that we have to discuss."

The beach is a popular surfing spot, and many residents fish or walk their dogs there at night.

Fukino said the department's medical-waste policy is to immediately clean up the waste and, if possible, identify the source. There is no policy in place to notify the public, she said.

Most often, the department does not issue a release or post signs because the spill is contained and cleared away, but in this case, needles remained after the cleanup, she said.

Even with the state-contracted Pacific Environment Corp. combing the area last week and yesterday, 'Ewa Beach resident Kerrie Prowse found a needle in the sand yesterday afternoon.

"I should not be able to find one that easily if there's been a cleanup," she said.

Prowse was one of the first to come across the needles last Wednesday. Bare-handed, she collected 20 to 30 of them and put them in her van.

She returned the next day to find a dozen more needles, at which point she called police and warned visitors at the beach.

"Most of them were horrified," she said.

Other residents reported finding similar needles at Iroquois Point.

Sen. Will Espero, D-20th, ('Ewa Beach, Waipahu), who learned of the incident yesterday, said he plans to follow up with the Health Department about its notification policy.

"Because of the public health hazard, I think it's important that there should be some type of alert," he said.

Fukino said the needles pose a health risk not necessarily because they are medical needles, "but because (they are) out there in the sand and the dirt" and can transfer bacteria to a wound if they are stepped on.

It is "quite probable" that they have been used, she said, given the high cost of IV needles.

The department is still investigating how they could have washed ashore, but Fukino said it will be difficult, if not impossible, to find out how they got there.

A threshold, or the number of needles that need to be found before an alert is issued, will also be considered, she said.

Prowse said representatives from a New Jersey-based manufacturer to whom she traced the needles did not know how they washed up on a Hawai'i beach.

HPD Maj. Mike Moses said a police investigator is looking into the situation as a criminal littering case, a petty misdemeanor.

Reach Kim Fassler at fassler@honoluluadvertiser.com.