• Pour clean water into clean cup or bottle cap.
• Pull back on plunger and fill halfway with clean water.
• Shake syringe/needle and squirt water out through the syringe/needle.
• Repeat this at least twice with new water or until all the blood and drug
Step 2. Rinse with full strength bleach.
• Pour full strength bleach (do not add water) into clean cup or bottle cap.
• Pull back on plunger and fill the syringe halfway with bleach.
• Shake syringe/needle and squirt bleach out through the syringe/needle.
• Repeat steps.
Step 3. Rinse syringe/needle with clean water three more times.
• Before injecting, always rinse syringe/needle with water to remove the
bleach.
• Keep the rinse water apart from water used to clean the syringe/needle and
to prepare drugs.
Things to remember:
• Do not reuse the cotton, water, bleach, or cooker. If the cooker must be
• Store bleach in a container that is opaque (you can’t see through it). Bleach loses its effectiveness with exposure to light. Label the container “bleach.”
• Never assume that a syringe purchased on the street is new, even if it seems to be packaged as new. The easiest place to get new syringes is at an ESAP pharmacy or a Syringe Exchange Program.