Ecology/Health

It doesn't take a large meth lab to create an environmental nightmare. The toxic waste from a makeshift lab created in the kitchen of a suburban home or in the backseat of a van or car can damage the environment, threaten the health of innocent citizens, and cost property owners and communities thousands of dollars to make the area safe and habitable.

For every pound of methamphetamine created, five to six pounds of toxic waste are left behind to contaminate buildings, vehicles, air, groundwater and well water, soil, wetlands, and agricultural land. Left behind also is various health hazards, as the waste is linked to respiratory problems, kidney and liver damage, and birth defects.

These hazards are created from the myriad of chemicals and materials used in methamphetamine production. Producers use over-the-counter cold medicines and diet pills, household products like lithium camera batteries, matches, tincture of iodine, and hydrogen peroxide. Flammable household products, including charcoal lighter fluid, gasoline, kerosene, paint thinner, rubbing alcohol, and mineral spirits, are often used. Ingredients may also include corrosive products, such as muriatic acid, sulfuric (battery) acid, and sodium hydroxide from lye-based drain cleaners.

Meth also creates an expensive headache to landlords and communities as well who have to deal with the cleanup. Some buildings are actually razed because it is more cost-effective than attempting to restore them.

While remediation costs are high, at least communities can rest easier knowing that the problem created by an identified lab can be resolved and made safe. What can keep officials up at night is the fact that the damage created by a meth lab isn’t necessarily restricted to the facilities where meth is produced. Meth cooks often dump waste at local, state, and national parks, and at campgrounds to dispose of any criminal evidence. And, of course, some meth labs are never identified after the operators abandon a property, leaving behind unseen waste that can harm surrounding neighbors, landlords, and those who later unknowingly inhabit the property.

New inhabitants of these former meth labs sometimes are sensitive to the toxic effects of the residual waste and susceptible to headaches, nausea, dizziness, confusion, breathing difficulties, skin and eye irritation, and burns. Residents are warned that if they find suspicious containers or laboratory equipment on their property, they should leave the area and contact law enforcement without handling anything. The same goes for those who find suspicious, hazardous materials used in a meth lab at such places as a park, at a campsite, in a public trash can, or alongside a road where the materials could have been dumped.