A major oil company in the Baltic states says it is installing blue lights in its gas station toilettes to dissuade growing numbers of drug addicts from using the facilities to inject narcotics.

The Norwegian-owned Statoil, a leading gasoline distributor in the region, said intravenous drug users had difficulty finding veins under the low, bluish light and so began avoiding places with such specially fitted bulbs. Before they restored independence in 1991, narcotics use in the Baltic states was rare. But as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have opened up to the rest of the world, illegal drug use has risen sharply. Statoil said the problem was dramatically highlighted when an employee at a gas station in Latvia recently pricked herself with a needle that had been discarded in the bathroom. It was found to be infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS. Statoil has some 90 stations across the region, but only those near large cities, where narcotics use is more common, were putting up the blue lights. Several outlets already installed the lights and others will do so soon. Spokesmen for the oil company said some Western European nations have already put blue lights in airport bathrooms and at other public places. They said the scheme had already proven effective at dissuading addicts.