NCJ Number
204467
Date Published
2002
Length
44 pages
Annotation
This document presents information about the potential chemical exposures to law enforcement and emergency services personnel responding to clandestine methamphetamine laboratory seizures.
Abstract
The goals of this study were to determine the primary chemical exposures of concern; which phase of the response poses the highest risk; the appropriate types of personal protective equipment; the appropriate components of a medical monitoring program; and investigate the reported symptoms and how they were observed or reported in children. Air and surface samples were collected for analysis. All of the data collected were put into Microsoft Excel Spread Sheets. Several inactive clandestine laboratories were also sampled. Controlled cooks were conducted in a home and a hotel under realistic cook conditions. The results showed that, based on a questionnaire, over half of the police officers involved in the investigation of clandestine methamphetamine laboratories had experienced symptoms involved with those investigations. Chemical irritation was the cause of most of the reported symptoms, which seemed to decline after the exposure. Regardless of whether the cook was being conducted at the time of entry, it was likely that most items and individuals that were in the vicinity of the cook were highly contaminated with methamphetamine. If the cook had been conducted within a building, chemicals would have spread not only in the specific area of the cook but throughout the building. All children within that building were likely to have been exposed to methamphetamine and other chemicals and should be considered contaminated. All law enforcement and emergency services personnel should enter a suspect clandestine methamphetamine laboratory with self-contained breathing apparatus and complete skin protection unless the lab has not been in recent operation. Based on the questionnaire, the use of adequate respiratory protection by personnel entering the laboratory sites was not as high as it should be. A low percentage of the personnel involved in laboratory investigations was decontaminated on site. All law enforcement and emergency services personnel should be trained in methods to reduce the “take home” levels of methamphetamine. Decontamination of all items taken out of the suspected laboratory should be conducted. 8 figures, 11 references