5. Avoiding infecting other people
Many people who wouldn’t risk using someone else’s equipment will let other people use their fits, filters etc.

Besides giving the impression that you think it is OK to share, this is putting the people who use second-hand equipment at risk from:

• Bacteria that have grown since you used the fit
• Any viral infection that you might have.

Using other people's filters or lending them yours is dangerous because they often come into direct contact with used needles and they are moist and warm - which is an ideal environment for both viruses and bacteria to live in.

Make sure that all blood-contaminated equipment is disposed of safely and, if you do get blood on your clothes or tourniquet, throw them straight in the wash.

Protecting other people
Most injectors wish they’d never started injecting and only a few want to encourage others to take it up.

If you don’t want to encourage others to inject there are things you can do to make sure you don’t contribute to someone’s decision to start injecting. You can:

• Try not to talk about injecting with non-injectors or when non-injectors are around
   
• Think carefully about how you talk about it because even when you give a balanced account of the pros and cons, people tend just to hear the good bits, and think that the bad bits only affect other people
   
• Try to ensure that as few non-injectors as possible know that you inject
   
• Avoid fixing in front of non-injectors as seeing someone do it often makes people realize it is not as scary as they had thought
   
• Talk about your views with other injectors to see what they think
   
• Think back to when you started injecting and try to avoid putting non-injectors in the situations that led you to start injecting.

Very often, when people start to inject they ask an experienced injector to do it for them. Being asked to do this can be difficult.

You can reduce the problem of unwanted requests to give someone their fix by:

• Thinking about how you (and they) might feel in the future if you do inject them
   
• Being very clear in your own mind about whether you are prepared to do it: it’s much easier to say 'I never do it for other people'
   
• Being prepared for people to be persistent (it isn’t easy)
   
• Having reasons in your head about why you are not going to inject a particular person, such as ‘they’re too young / chaotic / likely to OD’ etc.

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