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A Rapidly Growing Need for Meth Residue Testing
Monique Stewart • May 20, 2019
A Rapidly Growing Need for Meth Residue Testing
I’m sure many of you have seen the headlines exposing the high presence of meth within our community. Western Australia specifically ranking above the national average with rates at 1.4% nationally and 2.7% in Western Australia in the same year. While funding from the government to crack down on the drug with the Western Australian Methamphetamine Action Plan will help, tens of thousands of homes have already been contaminated with many more at significant risk due to rising meth use and manufacture. The most shocking statistic though? It has been recorded that young children living in a meth-contaminated home have the equivalent level of meth in their system an adult meth user.
Both manufacturing and smoking meth leaves a toxic chemical residue that stains and impregnates walls, floors, ceilings and carpets. When meth is manufactured, contaminants can include mercury, lead, iodine, lithium and poisonous solvents. Your body and young children’s bodies can take in this toxic residue in day to day life through touching and breathing. Sadly children are more susceptible to health risks due to their inquisitive nature. Exposure to meth residue can damage the nervous system, liver and blood production mechanisms, symptoms including headaches, irritated skin, and insomnia.
So what is being done to stop this?
The authorities are working hard. The government has put in action a Methamphetamine Action Plan for WA that was established in June 2017. This act will inject roughly $30 million into rehabilitation centres and continue to employ community treatment employees. This $30 million has been allocated for 2018-19 to 2021-22. While police are working hard, they can't keep up. Research suggests that for each property they seize that has a clandestine meth lab, there are 10 more they won't find. Australia wide the police uncover just 700 meth labs a year.
The manufacturing of meth was revolutionised around the late ’90s with the introduction of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine into common cold and flu medicine. Hand in hand with the common cold medicine, most ingredients and materials can be purchased from your local hardware store. The highly addictive drug, being able to be whipped up in less than 30 minutes using the “shake n bake” or “one pot” method.
Ingredients for the “shake n bake” or “one pot” method include:
- Sodium
Hydroxide – Can be obtained at hardware stores in the drain cleaner section.
- Ammonium Nitrate – This can be obtained through cutting open cold
packs. These packs can be purchased over the counter
- Camp Fuel
- Distilled
Water – This plays a crucial role in one pot meth lab process
- Lithium
Strips – Obtained by cutting open Energizer AA Lithium batteries
- MEK or
Xylene NP Solvent – Easily found at hardware stores in the paint section
- Pseudoephedrine HCL (PSE)
- Denatured
Alcohol (ethanol)
- Iodized
Salt (table salt mixed with a minute amount of various salts of the element iodine)
- Sulfuric Acid or Muriatic Acid – Found in hardware stores paint section.
How is it affecting our homes?
10 homes yearly are having to be demolished from extreme levels of meth contamination. While the health risks are concerning the final burden being placed on new home buyers and landlords are tremendous. With decontamination of a meth lab starting from around $5,000 quickly reaching $150,000 for a large home. The nail in the coffin is the fact that most insurance companies do not cover decontamination costs from meth residue.
What's the solution?
While not every
property in Australia is contaminated with meth residue, it is essential to
protect your health and your wallet.
- For landlords and
property managers, Stewarts Drug Testing can carry out testing between
tenancies to prevent contamination from building up or avoid temptation is
being proven to work.
- If you're purchasing a home, have a Pre-purchase Meth Test and Inspection written into your conditions of sale. This is a no-brainer when it comes to Mortgage re-possession properties. Stewarts Drug Testing can complete this testing and inspection for you.
Copyright © 2019 Monique Stewart.
Managing Meth Contamination - Stewarts Drug Testing Blog
This blog aims to inform the West Australian public on methamphetamine contamination and its effect. We intend on answering questions that property managers, landlords, first home buyers and homeowners need answering. Here we also look into current statistics on meth use, how meth is affecting our community and the way the problem is currently being managed. Blog writer by Monique Stewart (one of Stewarts Drug Testings meth testing technicians) will give you an insight into the world of meth contamination, and the effects of the drugs contamination on not only our community but our investments and health.
When should you get drug testing done in a commercial and or residential scenario? It's a complex question that doesn’t have a single answer. But, we hope to enlighten you on the types of reasons and situations, where drug testing is essential.
When meth is smoked, the crystals are heated and change form. Those tiny particles that become airborne and do not make it into the user's system, will land on the walls, floors, ceilings and any soft furnishings. Once the smoke hits these surfaces, the drug embeds itself into the surface and eventually changes back to its original form, tiny crystals
Do you rent out one of your properties as a short-stay apartment or home? Have you ever rented out a short-stay apartment/home for business or a holiday? Let’s get straight into it. A significant number of short-term holiday homes are being used to manufacture Methamphetamine. Yes, you read that correctly, they are being used as meth labs. In May this year, an Airbnb in Adelaide was found to have a meth lab set up by two gentlemen who rented the home for five nights. The police stumbled across the lab after responding to reports of a fire. The two men had only moved into the house just 24 hours earlier. They set up the meth lab within the property intending to set up the lab, manufacture Methamphetamine, pack up and leave within this short five day period being completely undetected, something that the Adelaide Police said isn’t uncommon in short-term rental properties. Meth labs don’t need to be a chemistry equipment style lab (like this setup); often there is no sign these types of drug labs even existed once they’re dismantled. What is left though is toxic, dangerous chemicals and meth residue for the next unsuspecting renter. This toxic residue can cause symptoms including persistent cough, asthma-like symptoms, trouble sleeping, ADHD, decreased memory function, skin rashes, watery eyes, dizziness and blurry vision—the list goes on. Although this incident is shocking, it is not a one-off occurrence. In December 2015, a similar situation happened in Queensland where police raided an Airbnb and found a meth lab set up for manufacturing meth. Not too long after this, in March 2016, an explosion occurred at the Meriton apartments in Queensland. It was said that a man was manufacturing meth at 5 a.m. in the holiday apartment when he was mixing chemicals that caused the explosion to happen.
Western Australians addition to meth and understanding how the drug affects our bodies. We dive into this toping explaining how the drug changes the chemicals in our brain and how that, in turn, makes us feel. We then explore how the residue from using meth is contaminating our homes.
The adverse health effects of living within a methamphetamine-contaminated property are consistent. The impacts we are seeing are respiratory, cognitive and behavioural. These effects have included persistent cough, asthma-like symptoms, trouble sleeping, ADHD, decreased memory function, skin rashes, watery eyes, dizziness and blurry vision—the list goes on. Children tend to be more at risk of being affected by meth contamination as they play regularly coming into contact with walls, floors and other surfaces.
Property managers have a duty of care to the tenant, protecting their health and safety when living in the home. Any meth residue that has contaminated the property can cause significant health complications. This can present a liability risk by allowing a contaminated home to be occupied; the property manager may breach the Residential Tenancies Act in their state/territory or contravene building, environmental and health legislation, leaving landlords and agents exposed to legal action and claims for compensation. This blog will outline what to look for in a tenant who is using or manufacturing meth, how to work out if the property is contaminated, and what to do next!
