Mark Bugnaski / Kalamazoo Gazette
environmental Strategist, between the lines: Meth labs are a huge environmental hazard that can impact each and every one of us. Meth labs can be found in places such as homes, trailers parks, apartments, automobiles, hotel rooms, commercial buildings, storage units, or as the link below points out, mother nature.
From the US Forest Service website on meth labs:
As an environmental hazard, the byproducts of meth labs contaminate their surroundings with harmful fumes and highly explosive chemical compounds. Abandoned meth labs are basically time bombs, waiting for the single spark that can ignite the contents of the lab. In the hands of the untrained chemists simultaneously using meth and working with the flammable chemical components, a working meth lab is just as unsafe.
Simply put, meth kills. The drug stimulates the central nervous system, producing excess levels of neurotoxins the brain cannot handle. As a health concern, meth eliminates brain functions and leads to psychosis and, in some cases, deadly strokes. Other long-term effects of meth use include respiratory problems, irregular heartbeat, extreme anorexia, tooth decay and loss, and cardiovascular collapse and death.
How to recognize a Methamphetamine lab?
- Unusual, strong odors like cat urine, ether, ammonia, acetone or other chemicals.
- Coffee filters containing a white pasty substance, a dark red paste, or small amounts of shiny white crystals.
- Glass cookware or stove pans containing a powdery residue.
- Shacks or cabins with windows blacked out.
- Open windows vented with fans during the winter.
- Excessive trash including large amounts of items such as antifreeze containers, lantern fuel cans, engine starting fluid cans, HEET cans, lithium batteries and empty battery packages, wrappers, red chemically stained coffee filters, drain cleaner and duct tape.
- Unusual amounts of clear glass containers.
Getting rid of a meth lab is dangerous and expensive. Meth cookers dump battery acid, solvents and other toxic materials into rivers or the ground. Much of the waste is highly flammable and explosive.
- One pound of meth produces six pounds of toxic waste.
- Even months after meth labs have been closed, chemical residue still remains.
- The chemicals used in the manufacturing process can be corrosive, explosive, flammable, toxic, and possibly radioactive.
- Solvent chemicals may be dumped into the ground, sewers, or septic systems. This contaminates the surface water, ground water, and wells.
- Traces of chemicals can pervade the walls, drapes, carpets, and furniture of a laboratory site.
Pollution liability insurance can protect you against the environmental exposure to meth labs. Contact your environmental team member at environmental Risk Managers to strategize in more detail. Instead of poisoning Mother Nature, let’s embrace her
More Reading –
Spring thaw uncovers meth-related dump sites across Michigan