Pubdate: Wed, 07 Jun 2006
Source: Salisbury Post (NC)
Copyright: 2006 Post Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.salisburypost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/380
Author: Kathy Chaffin
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

GRANT WILL HELP PROTECT CHILDREN FOUND NEAR METH LABS

Part of an $82,000 grant awarded to the Salisbury Police Department 
will be used in decontaminating children exposed to toxic fumes and 
other hazardous byproducts of methamphetamine labs.

Police Lt. David Belk told members of the Community Child Protection 
Team at their quarterly meeting Tuesday that decontamination 
equipment and new clothing for children found in raid situations will 
be purchased with the grant from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the 
Middle District of North Carolina. Participants in a June 20 workshop 
will fine-tune a Drug-Endangered Children's Response Plan drafted by 
the Rowan County Department of Social Services in October. Director 
Sandra Wilkes said the draft was based on a response plan adopted by 
Watauga County, one of the first counties in the state to address 
drug-endangered children in a formal plan. Social Services asked the 
Salisbury Police Department to further refine the draft, she said.

The plan also addresses ways agency workers can protect themselves on 
home visits, Belk said, including what to look for when they suspect 
the presence of a methamphetamine lab or other drug situation and 
what action to take when they encounter signs of drug activity.

Tom Brewer, Children's Services Program administrator for the 
Department of Social Services, said the plan also deals with 
decontamination, medical treatment and the placement and custody of 
children found in drug-endangered situations. An attachment to the 
plan deals with the hazards of specific chemicals used in methamphetamine labs.

The drug is processed with common household items, and the 
manufacturing process emits harmful -- sometimes lethal -- gases. The 
chemicals are also explosive. One of the big issues in dealing with 
methamphetamine labs is safety, Belk said, and it's important to take 
the proper precautions to ensure the lives and health of children, 
agency workers and law enforcement officers are not endangered.

"Methamphetamine is a concern for us because it is so volatile," he 
said. The harmful fumes and byproducts of the manufacturing process 
"continue and linger for some time."

Houses and other buildings where methamphetamine labs have been set 
up require extensive, costly cleanup before they are safe for new 
residents. Battalion Chief David Morris of the Salisbury Fire 
Department, which heads up the county's Hazardous Materials Response 
Unit, will be at the June 20 workshop to discuss protection and 
decontamination measures. Belk said the grant will also be used to 
buy eight self-contained breathing devices with full-face masks for 
use in methamphetamine lab raids, filters and spare cylinders for the 
devices and sophisticated surveillance cameras for investigations.

Part of the grant will also be set aside for specialized training and 
overtime pay for officers as well as operating expenses. In answer to 
a question by Chris Chaney of Rowan Partnership for Children, Belk 
said the department had only encountered one situation in which a 
child was exposed to toxic fumes and byproducts of a methamphetamine 
lab. "And that's one too many," Belk said.

In dealing with that situation, he said officials talked on the scene 
about the best way to decontaminate and seek medical attention for 
the child. The Drug-Endangered Children's Response Plan sets a 
protocol to follow in future cases. Clayton Cone of Nazareth 
Children's Home asked if restrictions on buying ingredients such as 
pseudoephedrine cold medicine had reduced the number of 
methamphetamine labs in the county.

Belk said the number of arrests since 2004 has dropped. "I think some 
of it comes from that because it is harder to get the products," he 
said. Still, the problem continues as "a front-burner issue," Belk 
said. "It's all over the country, and Rowan County has our share as 
well." Also at the Community Child Protection Team meeting, Cone 
presented a report on the ACE (Acute Care and Evaluation) Program at 
Nazareth Children's Home, and Wilkes reviewed the Department of 
Social Services' foster child placement policy.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom