Pubdate: Tue, 11 Dec 2007
Source: Blade, The (Toledo, OH)
Copyright: 2007 The Blade
Contact:  http://www.toledoblade.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/48
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

DANGERS OF DRUG HOUSES

PROTECTING the public health is one of the basic  charges of 
government, making it incomprehensible that  a bill to mandate the 
cleanup of former methamphetamine  labs in homes, apartments, 
vehicles, or hotel/motel  rooms before people are allowed to take up 
residence  has been stuck in an Ohio House committee for more than 
eight months.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Stephen Dyer (D., Green),  would require 
the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency  to establish cleanup 
standards and the Ohio Department  of Public Safety to create a 
public database of  properties used as meth labs so that people could 
check online about potential health risks before buying or  renting. 
Properties that have met the cleanup standards  would be dropped from 
the Web list.

Mr. Dyer said the bill got an initial hearing in the  Homeland 
Security and Veterans Affairs Committee months  ago and he is willing 
to compromise on details of the  measure, but has heard nothing from 
committee chairman  Steve Reinhard (R., Bucyrus) about the bill's future.

Methamphetamines are a growing scourge in American  society. Highly 
addictive, they also are cheap and easy  to produce, so meth labs 
have proliferated across the  United States in recent years. 
According to the  Cincinnati Enquirer, meth labs in more than 100 
houses, apartments, and hotel rooms have been busted in 
the  Cincinnati area since 2000, while about 350 former  sites have 
been discovered in the seven-county area  surrounding the Queen City 
and extending into Kentucky.

Residue from the manufacture of meth, as well as  contamination from 
the raw materials, chemicals used in  production, and the finished 
product remain long after  the lab has been busted. It can permeate 
everything in  the house: the walls, carpets, draperies, clothes, 
toys, even the duct work. As the newspaper report  noted, while no 
one is sure just how harmful these  substances are long term, police 
officers dress in  protective "moon suits" to avoid contact. Families 
that  moved into former meth-lab homes, unaware of their  past, have 
complained of chronic nose bleeds and  coughing spasms.

Potentially, there are thousands of these sites across  the state, 
meaning that many thousands of people may be  at risk of 
contamination. Yet Ohio, unlike 16 other  states, including Kentucky 
and Indiana, has no laws  setting standards for cleanup or even 
requiring that  potential buyers be informed of the risk. Mr. 
Reinhard says the bill is stuck where it is until questions  about 
who will fund it and do the testing are answered.  But eight months 
is more than enough time to find the  answers, if the committee is 
looking, and Mr. Dyer says  no one has come to him with these concerns.

It is worth noting that Mr. Dyer is a Democrat and that  Democrats 
typically have a hard time moving legislation  in the 
Republican-controlled House, regardless of the  bill's merits. We 
certainly hope Mr. Reinhard would not  endanger Ohioans for the sake 
of political mulishness.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom