Pubdate: Mon, 01 Jul 2002
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright: 2002 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.oklahoman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Author:  Penny Owen
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

AILMENTS SURFACE IN POLICE EXPOSED TO METH CHEMICALS

In the small Oklahoma town of Cromwell, Hank Neal was living the good life. 
At age 32, he was a husband, father of four and a well-known Seminole 
County deputy sheriff. When he wasn't chasing the bad guys, Neal attended 
every baseball game in town.

. Communities key in fight against meth Sunday: . State determined to win 
meth war . Meth addict finds recovery in prison . Meth changes citizens to 
addicts . Meth: Shattered Lives

Now, on his bad days, Neal uses a walker to get to the bathroom. Gout, a 
joint disease, has invaded both of his arms and legs, causing him to hunch 
over and draw inward. His days are scheduled around doctors' appointments 
and workers' compensation hearings. His nights are worse.

Neal's wife, Dian, loses her composure when she tells of his suicide 
attempts. There have been two so far.

In December 1999, Neal raided a methamphetamine lab while on duty and got a 
bloody nose. He didn't think anything of it, not even when, a week later, 
he began throwing up and having diarrhea.

At the time, they blamed a beer can that was hurled at him from a passing 
car, hitting him in the head. Now they blame the meth lab.

Victims of methamphetamine can reach well beyond the addicts and their 
assorted crimes. As the epidemic continues, deadly and debilitating 
ailments are surfacing in police officers and deputies assigned to 
investigate these labs, which are found in garages and kitchens, in mobile 
vans and motel rooms and elsewhere.

Only recently has the significance of being exposed to meth chemicals 
become known. A few years ago, officers raided labs with rubber gloves. Now 
they wear full-body protective gear and masks.

Sometimes officers stumble onto the labs accidentally. Unprotected, they 
are subjected to the fumes of phosphane gas, hydrochloric acid, anhydrous 
ammonia, Red Devil lye and a half-dozen other substances.

The health fallout is becoming more apparent as Oklahoma's meth lab 
epidemic now approaches five years. What was once a series of anecdotal 
cases may well become an alarming trend, those in law enforcement say.

"One of my agents has a spot on his liver. I know another agent from 
another agency who has a spot on his lung," said Dianne Barker-Harrold, 
district attorney for Adair, Cherokee, Sequoyah and Wagoner counties in 
northeastern Oklahoma, where meth lab seizures are common.

Barker-Harrold told of a Muldrow officer who found a meth lab during a 
traffic stop.

"He looked in the trunk of a car, took the lid off something, smelled it 
and he was down for the count because it was hydrochloric acid. The fumes 
are just terrible," she said. "There's going to be long-term effects to 
these officers."

Those long-term effects can matter to everyone in terms of health care 
costs and emotional fallout.

Consider Jamie Ward, a young Yukon police officer who assisted in searching 
for meth lab suspects during a raid in January. Ward, who was not wearing 
protective gear, ended up in the emergency room that night.

"She was in really bad shape and nearly died of lung injuries," said John 
Duncan, chief agent for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous 
Drugs. "Her lungs are permanently and irrevocably damaged."

The damage not only ended her law enforcement career, but her part-time 
singing career, Duncan said. At age 30, Ward constantly wheezes and 
struggles to breathe.

"Everything she worked for is down the tubes," Duncan said.

Some officers don't get sick until repeated exposures over time. The 
effects are cumulative, meaning fumes that don't do damage in one dose can 
build up over time, said Jerry Harris of the Oklahoma Narcotics Bureau.

Different chemicals have different effects as well. Some attack the lungs, 
others the kidney and liver, others the joints, Duncan said.

Roy Wunderlich, a Los Angeles police officer, had investigated about 1,500 
meth labs in his career. He later developed a rare liver cancer that has 
been associated with breathing chemicals.

Wunderlich battled the Los Angeles Police Department for compensation and 
won. But that's not always the case.

Neal, for instance, recently lost his claim for workers' compensation. An 
order from the workers' compensation court said the statute of limitations 
had passed. His wife said that is because they didn't realize meth could be 
the cause until two years later, when a blood test revealed a severe infection.

Other officers may never realize the true cause of their illnesses.

"That's one of the problems with longtime exposures," Duncan said. "You 
can't always tell what the lab caused and what was caused by just normal 
living. We're all subject to getting cancer and lung ailments."

Exposure to meth labs has serious health consequences for everyone involved.

"We're going to have real problems in the future in terms of health care. 
All these people we're running across in these labs, they're going to have 
health problems in the future and the health care system is going to have a 
problem," Harris said.
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