Pubdate: Sun, 10 Jul 2005
Source: Springfield News-Leader (MO)
507100383/1001/ARCHIVES
Copyright: 2005 The Springfield News-Leader
Contact:  http://www.springfieldnews-leader.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1129
Author: Pamela Brogan and Larry Bivins

STATE LEADS NATION IN METH FIRES, EXPLOSIONS

Toxic chemicals used to cook drug present dangers to first responders.

WASHINGTON - Missouri, which leads the country in the number of illegal meth
labs seized, also leads in fires and explosions at the labs, where highly
toxic chemicals present serious dangers for first responders. There have
been 348 meth-lab explosions and fires in Missouri since 2000, according to
federal statistics. That includes 33 last year and one in Springfield this
year, when a house burned after meth-making chemicals exploded.

Bill Zieres, an investigator with the state fire marshal's office, said four
of his nine investigators were sent to the hospital this year because of
exposure to chemicals at meth fires.

"This is a hazardous situation for us," Zieres said. "Our people were
sickened by vapors and fumes."

Zieres said firefighters usually don't know what they're facing when they
respond to a meth-related fire.

"It's hiding, waiting to kill our firefighters," he said.

Most experts agree that figures on meth-related fires underestimate the
extent of the problem because reporting by mostly all-volunteer fire
departments isn't mandatory.

Nationally, the number of fires at illegal meth labs peaked at 639 in 2003
and dropped to 275 last year, even though methamphetamine availability,
production and distribution are increasing nationally.

So far this year, there have been 71 meth-lab fires and explosions
nationally and three in Missouri.

A Missouri fire official said meth manufacturers are becoming increasingly
aware of the hazards involved in making the drug.

"They are smarter about it," said Gary Wilson, who heads the University of
Missouri Fire and Rescue Training Institute and trains firefighters how to
respond to meth-related blazes. "There's a lot more awareness about fires
and explosions."

State fire officials said people suspected of starting a fire at a meth lab
will be charged with a felony under a state law that takes effect Aug. 28.

"This law is going to help us with reporting and prosecuting people," said
James McKenney, fire incident reporting manager at the Missouri Division of
Fire Safety.

Capt. Ron Replogle, director of the Missouri Highway Patrol's Division of
Drug and Crime Control, said 154 of his officers reported being exposed to
toxic chemicals last year. So far this year, 54 have reported such exposure.

"Most are meth-related," he said.

Sgt. Dan Banasik, assigned to the Drug Enforcement Administration's office
in Springfield, said police and the public are exposed to carcinogens from
meth labs "when they don't even know it."

"Our biggest concern is that there might be a long-term exposure problem,"
he said.

Banasik said that every pound of meth produced results in five pounds of
hazardous waste.

"Where is this stuff going?" he asks. "The public needs to be aware and
vigilant."

Missouri isn't the only state with a big meth problem, and the drug is
moving east into more densely populated areas.

"In the law enforcement arena, we've been telling people that if this ever
gets a hold in our urban areas, we just won't have the resources to control
it," said Mark Gwyn, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Meth was identified as the No. 1 drug problem by law enforcement agencies in
45 states, according to a National Association of Counties survey released
Tuesday.

"Meth is invading our communities like wildfire," North Carolina Attorney
General Roy Cooper said. "It's not moving eastward. It's here."

In North Carolina, the number of meth labs or meth dump sites seized by
police increased from six in 1999 to 317 in 2004, according to the DEA. In
New York, seizures increased from one to 28. In West Virginia, from five to
145.

And meth-related hospital admissions have increased dramatically in East
Coast cities such as Baltimore and Newark, N.J., according to the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

"The number of clandestine methamphetamine laboratories is growing and their
locations are shifting from isolated, rural facilities to houses, trailers
and apartments in more densely populated urban areas," the Arkansas
Department of Health reported last year.

In Tennessee, meth labs have been found in nearly every major city in the
state, "everywhere from hotel rooms to apartment complexes and vehicles,"
the state's Bureau of Investigation reported.

Meth's migration into cities and towns presents a nightmare scenario for
first responders and environmental officials because the chemicals used to
make the drug are so combustible and toxic.

Eric Lawrence, a drug forensic expert for the Indiana State Police, called
meth labs "an immediate threat to public safety."

"Fifty percent of our drug labs are discovered accidentally," he said. "The
other reason we find them is after a fire or explosion."

Nationally, law enforcement officials found 2,304 meth labs from 2000
through May 20 this year because the labs caught fire or exploded, according
to the DEA.

A 2002 incident in Iowa shows what can happen when meth is manufactured in a
crowded setting.

In that case, a methamphetamine lab in Newton, Iowa, exploded in the
bathroom of an apartment, severely burning two men police said were making
meth when the chemicals they were mixing caught fire. Witnesses said
fireballs shot through every window of the apartment.

"I just thought maybe they were being loud," said building resident Erica
Wickett. "Then the apartment filled with smoke. I could barely breathe."

Twenty-four apartment building residents were evacuated for three hours.

From January 2000 through June 2004, there were 1,791 meth-related spills,
fires or explosions in 15 of the 16 states - Missouri, Alabama, Colorado,
Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North
Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin - that
report such incidents to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

New Jersey was the only state that reported no meth-related incidents.

The incidents injured 947 people, including 531 police officers, and caused
the temporary evacuation of 2,732 people. A total of 1,154 people were
decontaminated, including 698 emergency responders.

Children of meth manufacturers often are present while the drug is being
cooked in mom-and-pop labs, an added potential for disaster.

Since 2000, nine children have died in meth-lab accidents and scores have
been injured. Thousands have been exposed to the highly addictive drug and
its toxic byproducts, including 1,803 in Missouri, the most in the nation.

The drug's ingredients - acids, bases, metals, solvents and salts - soak
into fabrics and porous surfaces and produce toxic gases that find their way
into ventilation systems.

"Virtually all items within the house, as well as all people, pets, toys,
etc., become contaminated with methamphetamine," John Martyny, an industrial
hygienist at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center, testified at a
March 3 congressional hearing.

Martyny said airborne levels of meth could exist in a lab for as long as six
months after a "cook."

Cleanup costs are enormous.

In 2001, California spent close to $5.5 million cleaning up more than 2,000
meth labs, according to the Justice Department's National Drug Threat
Assessment for 2003.

"Chemicals from (meth) dump sites contaminate water supplies, kill
livestock, destroy national forest lands and render areas uninhabitable,"
the assessment said.

"It takes your breath away," said Mike Heald, an executive assistant at the
Drug Enforcement Administration. "We're talking about people who could care
less about whether this stuff can hurt people ... like throwing a beer can
out the window."

Some states have teamed with the Environmental Protection Agency to go after
people suspected of dumping meth waste. And the agency has handed out more
than $3 million under a program that lets local governments apply for up to
$25,000 in cleanup money per meth incident, according to EPA spokeswoman
Enesta Jones.

Experts still aren't sure how to tell when a former meth site is fit for
occupancy.

"How clean is clean?" asks Brad Harris, chief of a meth special projects
unit at Missouri's Department of Natural Resources. Harris said he supports
a federal health standard for methamphetamine contamination.

While Missouri has the most meth labs to clean up, it has no specific
cleanup standards, only a set of guidelines issued by the state Department
of Health and Senior Services.

Seven states - Washington, Oregon, Tennessee, Colorado, Hawaii, Arkansas and
Arizona - have meth cleanup standards, and Idaho plans to join them.

Democratic Rep. Russ Carnahan, who represents Missouri's 3rd District, is
sponsoring legislation in Congress to require the federal Environmental
Protection Agency to develop voluntary guidelines on how to clean up meth
labs.

These issues will become more pressing as meth continues its march into
urban areas.

Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Science Committee,
said it might be necessary to enact federal legislation to require property
owners to disclose to potential renters or buyers when an apartment or a
house was used to manufacture meth.

Boehlert said it's hard to tell, after a meth offender is thrown into jail,
that dangers remain.

"No one knows that the carpet is loaded with toxic material," Boehlert said.
"We've got to get at that." 
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MAP posted-by: Josh