Are You Living in a Former Meth Lab?
Houses once used as meth labs dot the country and pose health risks to their future residents
Michael Glenn Easter • April 28, 2010
Jaimee Alkinani and her husband had just bought their first home in a quiet suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah. The house was nice: three bedrooms, tree-lined street, kids riding bikes down the sidewalk, and friendly neighbors who waved when they passed. The family was on their way — they’d also just opened a small business near their home, had an eleven-month-old child, and Jaimee was eight months pregnant. Life had officially started for the Alkinanis. But soon things turned for the worse.
A few days after they had moved in, a neighbor welcomed them with disturbing news. “Your house used to be a meth lab,” he said — a fact that the seller had never disclosed. So they called their realtor. He told them not to worry, that the house had been decontaminated. He even produced a certificate from the local health department to prove it.
Then the family started getting sick. Within five months, Jaimee and her husband developed sinus problems that required surgery. When their baby was born, he had serious lung issues that caused him to stop breathing a few times. He also wasn’t gaining weight, and was in and out of the hospital.
So the Alkinanis had their house tested for methamphetamine. The results made Jaimee put her kids in the car and immediately abandon her new home, with all the family’s possessions still inside. The house’s level of methamphetamine contamination was 63 times higher than the level at which the Utah State Health Department condemns a house.
Houses formerly used as meth labs, called meth houses, put their residents at risk of serious health consequences, says Stan Smith, a doctoral student at the University of California, Los Angeles, and director of the Drug Endangered Children Task Force, a division of the California Drug Enforcement Agency.
Upon moving into a meth house, people have experienced short-term health problems ranging from migraines and respiratory difficulties to skin irritation and burns. Long-term problems are less well known, but the results from a 2009 study in Toxological Sciences suggest that methamphetamine chemicals may cause cancer in humans. And because children have small, developing bodies and a tendency to play on the ground and put things in their mouths, they are especially susceptible to adverse health effects from meth toxins. “When we go into a lab, if there are children, the first thing we do is take the children to the hospital and assess them for contamination,” said Smith.
The chemicals used in methamphetamine production are highly toxic and range from pseudoephenadrine — the main ingredient in meth and active ingredient in decongestants — to any one of 32 other precursor chemicals. These include acetone, the active ingredient in nail polish remover, and phosphine, a widely used insecticide.
Home-cooking meth spreads toxins to every inch of the room where the meth was cooked and beyond. Nothing escapes contamination — the carpet, walls, furniture, drapes, air ducts, even the air itself becomes toxic. “Ingesting some of these chemicals, even a tiny drop, can cause immediate death,” said Smith.
“When we go into a meth lab, we have on respirators, Tivec suits, shoe coverings, gloves, and eye goggles,” said Sergeant Cory Craig, a state highway patrolman and narcotics specialist based in northern Missouri. Police treat methamphetamine labs as hazardous waste sites. They remove meth-making hardware and chemicals, and often hire professional cleaning companies to sanitize the house.
The sheer amount of chemicals removed from labs is staggering. Consider Missouri alone. “Since 1998 we’ve seized 12,354 meth labs, 251,000 pounds of solid waste, and 118,000 pounds of toxic waste,” Craig said.
In dealing with toxic chemicals, most meth lab clean-up crews follow general guidelines. In the room where the meth was made, they scrub all surfaces, repaint the walls, replace the carpets and air filters, and air out the property. However, there are no national standards for meth lab cleanups — regulations differ from state to state. And in some states, getting a license to decontaminate a house is as easy as taking a few hours of class and a written test. “There are some bad certification methods out there. You could be a pizza delivery guy, study for a month, pay $250 and be certified,” said Joe Mazzuca, a methamphetamine contamination expert and CEO of Meth Lab Cleanup, a nationwide meth-lab-specific cleanup company based in Boise, Idaho. In the Alkinanis’ case, the person who decontaminated their house shirked his responsibility by cleaning too quickly and not using the correct cleaning agents.
And while some states, such as Colorado, Washington and North Carolina, employ effective regulations, some experts think that many may not. In Idaho, for example, a former lab is deemed “clean” when there is less than one tenth of a microgram of methamphetamine per square centimeter in the room where meth was cooked. If the amount of meth detected is at such a low level, some state regulators think, meth’s precursor chemicals are at low levels too. “We just check for meth,” said Jim Faust of Idaho’s Clandestine Drug Lab Cleanup Program, a statewide program based in Boise, Idaho.
Like Idaho, many states only check for meth in the room where the drug was cooked. This method doesn’t account for toxic dust or harmful chemicals that may have traveled to other parts of the house. Another compounding factor is that many states do not require that the person cleaning the meth house be professionally trained or licensed in methamphetamine or hazardous waste cleanup.
Of all the toxic chemicals in a meth house, methamphetamine itself is probably the hardest to clean up, but it’s actually the least toxic. Meth’s precursors pose the greatest health risk to residents of a former meth lab. When people smoke or shoot meth they face serious health risks, but they usually don’t die; they just get high. Many of meth’s toxic precursors, if smoked or injected, are lethal.
Even if a meth house is cleaned properly, some experts worry that meth toxins may hang around. Glenn Morrison, an engineering professor at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Mo., questions the adequacy of current meth house cleanup standards, emphasizing their failure to ensure the removal of toxins that are absorbed by the home. “These clean-ups tend to be somewhat superficial when it comes to permanent building materials,” he said.
Morrison recently received funding from the National Institute of Standards and Technology to investigate exactly how methamphetamine contamination resides in buildings. He hopes to figure out whether current meth lab cleanup protocols properly address contamination. “Building materials absorb pollutants, even if the materials are not obviously porous or fleecy. This contamination can be re-released, even after the building has been cleaned,” Morrison said.
Professional meth house cleanup contractors estimate that about 90 percent of meth houses are never uncovered, and their tenants will likely never know about their homes’ toxicity. Many of the meth houses that are discovered are listed on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Clandestine Drug Lab Registry or on other state databases.
The DEA’s registry lists 113,464 meth labs that were uncovered from 1999 to 2008. But this figure doesn’t account for any undiscovered meth labs and many meth experts think it’s an underestimate. “The record keeping is horrific. The DEA’s list can’t be relied upon because it’s completely voluntary,” said Dawn Turner, who started methlabhomes.com, a free, web-based resource for people who have unknowingly purchased a meth house. “I’ve heard estimates that there are a million to a million and a half meth homes and most of them are never found by the police department,” she added. In the area where the Alkinanis lived, there were 250 known meth houses and most of their owners had no clue about their homes’ nefarious past. The exact number of meth houses in U.S. is still unknown.
And although meth houses are more concentrated in certain states — Missouri is the meth capitol of the world, with 1,471 labs discovered in 2008 alone — there are meth houses in all fifty states. Consider a lab found in Framingham, Mass., a town with an average home price of around $350,000. Or a lab found in Norwalk, Conn., where the average home is valued at $694,000. “There is a misconception that these houses are crack houses. They are absolutely not. A meth house in Kentucky recently went on the market for $700,000 dollars,” Turner said.
With so many homes potentially contaminated by methamphetamine production, meth experts estimate that thousands to tens of thousands of people have discovered that what they thought was the American dream — a nice home for the family — is actually an American nightmare — the potential cause of a range of health problems and a stack of medical bills. But is the issue receiving enough attention? Not for people like Turner. “States are really dragging their feet on this issue,” she said.
The Alkinanis agree. Because there were no meth lab disclosure laws in Utah at the time they bought their house, they have no financial or legal recourse. “We are paying the price for what one person did,” said Jaimee Alkinani. “My child will likely have a lifetime of permanent medical issues because of this house, and we are going into bankruptcy because we can’t sell the house.”
Filed To
Share
About the Author
Michael Glenn Easter
Michael Glenn Easter enjoys writing about the intersection between the environment, politics, and economics–he studied those three topics by creating his own major at Wheaton College. He is particularly interested in the environmental issues of the West and has spent summers interning for the mayor of Salt Lake City, a Utah-based environmental group, and the EPA’s Rocky Mountain Region office in Denver
32 Comments
Where’s the data suggesting that former meth labs are really hazardous at the levels the laws have set? I find nothing in the peer-reviewed literature that looks at chronic effects of exposure– only stuff looking at people exposed to cooks or 24 hours or 48 hours later or in active cleanups of remaining labs themselves.
The DEA often pushes drug scare stories, clean-up companies are for-profit businesses and families will quite understandably panic if told they live in a toxic meth lab site. But how do we know that that’s the cause of their problems?
If the risk isn’t real, these registries and labeling of sites are destroying real estate value for no good reason, possibly bankrupting people.
If there is data showing that people living in former meth labs have a higher level of health problems than others, please cite it– and please quantify it in context. If not, it’s important to include skeptical sources and not just pass on drug warrior bluster.
There are plenty of data to show the health effects of the hazardous chemicals used to manufacture meth. It is no secret and it was not developed by DEA. OSHA has standards for all the chemicals used whether flammable, corrosive, explosive, toxic, etc. Hospital data also show the heath effects of meth on users. Between the DAWN statistics kept by hospitals and the National Jewish Medical Research Center in Colorado, the reader’s head will spin with all the information they need.
Some of the residues from manufacturing meth are extremely hazardous. These may include volatile forms of iodine (hydrogen iodide, methyl iodide, elemental iodine), volatile forms of chlorine (hydrogen chloride, radical chlorine), and red phosphorus. Red phosphorus emits phosphine when exposed to moisture including high humidity. Not all meth labs leave these compounds. A seldom-used method can leave mercury. Other contaminants can be left behind but these I’ve listed are typically the most hazardous. Methamphetamine can be hazardous if the concentration is high enough. The most vulnerable are children below the age of 2. The method used to decontaminate is important. Painting or other encapsulation measures are normally insufficient to contain iodine, phosporus, and mercury vapors. These three contaminants are extremely hazardous but rarely tested for. The method used to decontaminate is very important. Washing materials from walls, etc. then vacuuming contaminants from the floor can leave contaminants in subflooring. At a minimum, washing should be followed by removal of absorbent floor materials. Another method, demolition, may also be insufficient to decontaminate. For example, where a meth lab is used in an unfinished basement, a protocol directing removal of sheetrock, flooring, cabinets, ducts, and the furnace, then painting all remaining materials may leave occupants at a dangerous risk. Removing the least-contaminated materials and painting over the most-contaminated materials is not a reasonable decontamination effort. Some people attempt decontamination with extremely high concentrations of sodium hypochlorite. I recently decontaminated one of these sites to abate the radical chlorine emitted from the hypochlorite residue. A dwelling where someone smoked methamphetamine is not a meth lab. The lowest pre-decontamination test result I’ve seen at a confirmed meth lab is 15 micrograms (15ug). Where a dwelling was or may have been a meth lab, a protocol capable of decontaminating meth lab residues, not just methamphetamine, should be used. And decontamination should be followed by testing, at a minimum, for meth lab chemicals such as iodine, chlorine, phosphorus, and in some instances – mercury. Testing after decontaminating a meth lab is only appropriate where a decontaminating protocol capable of decontaminating the most hazardous residues is used. The most hazardous meth lab chemicals are far easier to decontaminate than methamphetamine. Testing only for methamphetamine makes sense if a protocol capable of decontaminating the extremely hazardous but easy to decompose chemicals is used. If the difficult-to-decompose methamphetamine is gone, you can be assured the other residues were gone long before.
My 21 year old daughter, who was born physically handicapped with Arthrogryposis Multiple Congenita, a disability of her limbs and joints, moved into her very first home away from ours about two years ago. It is a home that is very close to ours and had been totally renovated. It was a dream come true for her to be able to live away from home and have a beautiful home. However, I think the home is killing her. Since she moved in two years ago, she developed respiratory conditions and a lung disease called bronchiectasis, an uncurable lung disease which is ultimately a recurring constant lung infection. She has been on every kind of medicine, now takes daily breathing treatments, which really have no affect in improving her breathing. Her chest is constantly heavy like an elephant is on her chest, she coughs up tissue that looks like skin. She has a worse cough then someone with emphysema. The house she lives in HUD pays the majority of her rent. This was not a HUD approved house until I found the house available one day and the landlord decided to accept HUD. My daughter is physically handicapped and lives on Social Security and has to rely on food stamps and medicaid. It is a total shame that she is not striken with a life-long incurable lung disease which I believe is caused by her house. The house has had many problems along the way, the central air unit fails to work properly. The water pipes have bursted several times and I actually thought her lung disease was mold related. But the last time her pipes broke her landlord disclosed to her and the man fixing the pipes the house was previously a meth lab. It was his sister-in-law living there, and appearantly she learned electrical, so she could rig the electric and smoke detectors to prevent the house from catching fire. When my daughter was given a CO detector from her friends mother, the CO detector wouldn’t stop alarming in the house. My daughters lung disease is unbearable, she is constntly hacking, her sinuses are constantly clogged with no relief from any sinus or nasal medication. Her best friend who is her care giver has suffered from non-stop migraines since they moved into this home.
I want to know who I have to contact and what legal recourse I have to deal with this situation.
How do I get the house tested for meth levels, and how do I know if the tester is legitimate or just a fraud? Please help.
Andrea
I agree, that govt., & organizations, jsut as businesses do, use anything they can, to map themselves & make more moeny, or gain more power, but ehre’s a recent story. Appears meth containmination is valid.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/mystery-illness-solved-family-discovers-home-meth-lab-184815233.html
I have to agree with poster #1; I still haven’t seen hard data in the responses that backs these claims up. OSHA does have permissible exposure limits for these materials; are you saying that the airborne levels in these houses exceeds the OSHA PEL’s? Just reciting the names of chemical compounds because they are long and complicated-sounding doesn’t make them hazardous at the levels they exist in former meth houses. If these chemicals are so lethal, why don’t all of the meth heads die instantly when they’re cooking meth? After all, they’re probably exposed to levels many orders of magnitude higher while cooking and living there than the residual levels in an empty house. Hard data, please. These kinds of stories play on the chemical-phobia of an uneducated public.
For those of you wanting more hard data that backs up these claims, please come live in our current house. We are going through this nightmare right now and we are frantically searching for information on how to clean up our belongings so that we don’t have to loose everything when we move out. We rented a home and our landlord did not disclose that the previous renter cooked meth here. We have three dogs that have all developed health issues. I have constant respiratory problems, itchy skin, watery eyes, etc. Luckily my husband is the least affected, but he also spends the least amount of time in the house because of his work. It is sad that there is not more information out there on cleaning up after being exposed to toxins left in a not properly cleaned home.
I agree with poster 7. Anyone who wants to disprove the effects of meth labs, come work in my office. My mother has developed breast cancer, and now have polyps in her lungs.
i’m looking at a house to move into. it’s be completely remodeled. it had a meth lab in it and blew up. how do i find out if this house will harm my family? I don’t want to buy something that could kill us.
Just look at pictures of people who ingest meth and what it does to them over time…..need say no more
To Michelle poster #7,
Can you share what you discovered on how to clean your personal belongings??
I’m not only working on an educational video but I’m 95% sure I am in the same boat as you and millions of others.
If anyone can give any help on this I would greatly appreciate it.
Michele, readig your post I thought I wrote it myself! We are going thru that right now in So. CAL and cant get any help. We sent the property manager a letter demanding testing but they dont want to because its expensive and even tho the owner told us himself they were cooking meth as well as the neighbor, shes trying to say we dont have reason to demand as its all hearsay!!!!! What did you end up doing? Any advice?
Hmm the production of meth as a man made drug makes me wonder just how man made prescriptions are made in “certified” labs are made. Then all the side effects of those prescriptions… Yeah. How much toxic waste do suppose all the different kinds of perscriptions make that are dumped and cleaned up “legally”.
Just something to think about…
How to clean and what to do about poison conttrol. My husband has been poisoned clearing up an old meth house and poison control said they cant help cuz they dont know which chemical.
My daughter may buy a house that is 30 feet from a former meth house, which has been torn down. Is it wise to buy a house that close to a meth lab???In rural Tn.
I am looking at buying a house that might have had meth lab in it. I know it was used in this house. My question is if I gut the house just leaving the wall studs and exterior (brick, roof decking and shingles) Would house be safe to live in? Would you and your family live there? I plan to replace all insulation, sheetrock, counter tops, appliances, wood trim, sinks, bath tubs, toilets, light fixtures, electrical outlets, light switches, electrical covers, Heater and A/C unit along with all duct work and vents, all flooring too. I would clean concrete slab prior to installing new flooring along with having windows cleaned.
Thanks
Justin
if I am suspicious due to health problems, what should I get tested for by my doctor?
if I could get hard data, would I be wasting my time on random anecdotes? you try to find hard data and let the rest of us in on your sources when you find them. we’re not on this site for its entertainment value.
How do you find a way to test for the toxins in a meth house? How do we contact someone who knows what to test for? What about a neighbor’s house that blasts toxic air into our house? How can small quantities in the environment (the soil, our walls, the interior of our house that is not a meth lab) be tested?
My husband rented an apartment in Dalton,GA while working out of town within a week he was complaining that it felt like something was stuck in his throat and he was throwing up in the mornings. After three months he was projectile vomiting blood and could no longer work. I had noticed smells from his clothes that smelled like pesticides and when we moved him out the smell in the apartment was so bad I was fighting throwing up, my throat felt like I had something stuck in it and an unbelievable headache. It smelled like cat urine and pesticides. Once we had the white powder that was on everything tested it tested positive for meth. We tested his urine two years later and it was positive for meth. He died within three years of moving out,a miserable and gruesome death and no physician would listen to us about the meth. A year after his death I had to have my esophagus dilated as I could no longer swallow water without pain. I had one large scare in my esophagus. Six months later I had heart surgery to repair a severely torn mitral valve that I had no record of having before. No doctor in a year heart any murmur and had never been diagnosed with this in my past. Meth is a killer especially to those unaware of it’s dangers. Most Meth cooks don’t go to the hospital and most hospitals or doctors are not educated and have no desire to be. This is real I lived it!
Just went through the beginning of similar pattern as original story, and the story number 20. I have just ordered two different home meth test kits, and will know more in couple of weeks, though choice of sample spots is pure luck, and you pay at least 30 dollars per spot.
Regardless, to tell you the pattern, and the attempts to figure out what is going on. House is in Allentown, PA, in a supposedly decent part, with retirees and young families. First thing to be wary of is the number of owners or renters house went through. I am learning the history right now.
Turns out that I have people without visible source of income across the street, that the house went through three hands in five years etc.
Then, be wary of recent painting, overhaul.
Symptoms: rented the house for two months without spending much time in it. Then, changed my pattern and started spending whole days and workweek inside.
Within a week started having need to clear throat, then later to cough out, with nothing to cough out. As soon as I would spend couple of hours outside, preferably walking and exerting, that need would go away.
One important symptom, which started even earlier, with day one, but I disregarded it, was the feeling of nose dryness after a night’s sleep.
And to get that feeli g of dryness in 80%:humidity of summer nights!
.
Noticed that a seemingly clean hardwood floor in master bedroom was covered with thin white film of powder. Noticed it only when my black quilt fell and wiped it. Thought it had something to do with a smell of recent painting, and that it must have been because they may have just wiled the floor with wet cloth, and then it dried.
Well, not so quickly. Agent says the usual lines “not to my knowledge etc”, but they also say there was no painting. Then, found powder in bathroom, and bathroom drain releases some acidic smell which you can feel after leaving bathroom closed for a while.
Use this when looking for tell tale suspicious signs and inconsistencies in owner’s stories.
So, hairball feeling in the throat continued, more coughing to clear.
I never had any respiratory issues in my life, never had any allergies (i mean, even with this,
I was actually going out into woods to clear out). I am very active, able to run 8 miles if hilly terrain (at least was so, till this).
Then, started feeling that my lungs and throat became more sensitive,
tender. Say, when breathing colder air, or walking past recently treated neighborhood lawns.
Went to doctors: internist, chest xray, blood test (not for toxins),
ear, nose,throat, then allergy spec, and pulmonary function test.
As I was telling them, still not allergic, nothing viral, nothinh mechanic.
That much about what to expect from doctors. They do not listen and do not hear. No common sense either, while there is no avenue for you to have a medical professional check your place in terms of your health. You have to do it yourself. Doctors can notice something only once you are already fried and ruined.
Trust yourself (doctors treat you like rape victim, not exactly trusting you, as if you would go through all the hassle fir fun).
As soon as your body starts behaving differently, do the checking for toxins immediately. Over past four months, coughing became part of my life, as if a smoker. Do not let yourself accept such changes.
Doctors will look for all the excuses instead of looking for causes. Line bad mechanics, who will change oil even when you have flat tyre. They will talk about age,gender, size, race, everything but the real reasons. Because you had that same age,gender, race and size before.
So, these are the symptoms where you have to act, test house. Do not act when it becomes too late.
And do not buy or rent even if there is a slightest doubt.
I currently leave windows open (unless neighbor is slraying Momentum and Crosscheck), do not use master bedroom at all, spend shortest possible time in bathroom (with fan on, and sometimes a cloth on my face).
And will try to move before onset of winter, when i will not be able to keep windows open.
As for real estate agent and owner, they could not care less, as long as they can get every cent and last dollar, whether it may be my last breath or not.
Again:
if slightest suspicion or doubt, dont get into it.
if already in, test, sue and fight, because that will be literally fight for your life. As for doubters, tell them to live in meth house if they like them so (as in comment number one)
I have been a victim of terrorism from a gang of thugs who have hacked my computers and phones, broke into my apt while stalking my whereabouts on my own GPS. Hacked my computer in my bedroom and froze my screen on naked pictures I took with my old boyfriend. They shot the windshield out of my car and stole my keys and went into my car and vandalized and stole my personal belongings. Cut my car with a knife or a box cuter. I had videos of them doing this and they hacked my computer and deleted my videos and even renamed them saying they were going to kill me ànd I could go on and on…..I’m writing a book from all my journals. I am researching how to get the meth residue they smeared, sprayed, and dripped on everything I owned. I tested it and it is meth. Is a long and complicated story…..I went to the ER, I called the police, went to the apt management (low income) …I was a collage student and I moved in an apt I could afford and it was in a drug den I found out. I paid a private investigator and he just stole my$500 and never was available for one price visit…..OK, back to my main question, what if anything can I use to save my beautiful clothes, shoes, books, jewelry, everything gone!!!! I hate my state for not protecting me!!!? I want to move to a state that protects the people and not the gangs!!!! I need to know if bleach and Dawn will get it off my shoes…books…etc..I been washing every piece wearing gloves and putting out in the sun to try to neutralize the meth crap. Is this the best I can. do to save my stuff or is there a real way I can clean my stuff tried and true?
I was told by neibor that this was a meth lab and he didn’t disclose this to me. What is my recorce to having this matter to benefit me and my health issues due to the fact. He didn’t clean the place. I did prior to knowing this .
If anyone doubts the health effects, come live in my house. Our retirement dream house, an old farmhouse in the country, purchased almost 3 years ago. It was a little dirty, so I scrubbed it down soon after we got it, especially the kitchen cabinets, custom made wood without any varnish. Seems they had absorbs a lot of chemicals. We ended up not being able to retire for another 15 months. I got home and immediately started getting sick. I had a cough that felt like my lungs were coming up. We lived in the desert, I was really healthy, never even got colds. My doctor ordered a chest x-ray. Nothing. I figured dust or something. Then we moved here. My 25 year old son with us to help. We all started becoming sick, headaches, coughing. I’ve had pneumonia and severe bouts of Bronchitis 3 times in 8 months. One of my dogs has started to cough and gag. I have horrible headaches and feel “off” most days. We found out the Sheriff had arrested the woman who owned the house for meth lab, sale etc. Her previous house had burned down due to her son’s meth lab. She dropped dead in the house while out on bail, massive heart attack at age 67. This is a small town. Everyone know everything! My real estate agent knew, the executor of her estate (son) knew. The listing agent knew, he lives across the road and this is his family homestead from the 1800s. My son moved out, I can’t. Our retirement is tied up in this house since we paid cash. We’re stuck and sick. The sheriff dropped the ball, never called the state in to clean, so the house isn’t listed on the Meth Lab list. Don’t buy a house with a test!!!
what gets me is that this family gets stuck with this problem! There may not be meth disclosures in that state but it is still a stigmatized property ! Also worth mentioning is how liable is the cleaning company who failed to do their job! Their should be a certain criteria met just as it is with mold ! Right ? What a shame ! I hope they find a way out of this mess!
Test for moulds, two years in this house, and the moulds ……… you cant see them, it is a dry home, only indication is powder on shoes, and some spots of mould on sons room. 6 types of CLASS A dangerous aspergillis and others, yes, I now have aspergillosis, COPD< ME< CIRS chronic ear infection all from these moulds. Now find out it was a probably meth lab, with a poor clean up. Next to test for the chemicals and meth residue. Public housing, they are doing a ducking and diving. I am so unwell now, I cant leave the house, my son is also getting very ill. I dont know the lasting damage, and they refuse to move us.
I believe our home has been deliberately contaminated. The furnace emitted a choking contaminant at night, and there was a clove and marajuana smell when I used the car heater. We found a wet carpet puddle in our bedroom that was NOT cat pee, which evolved some even nastier gas. We will have to demolish.
What levels does a home have to be or degree of exposure for someone to have test be positive for meth, after cleaning and living in a possible meth lab house or worse they become sick with rashes, red eyes, and respiratory illnesses? I have heard of it happening and womdering the degree or level a house would be to get into a persons body, respiratory system and blood system.
It was helpful when you said that former meth lab houses can cause serious health issues. My sister was worried her home was a former meth lab. I’ll have to pass this information along to her so she can look into getting meth testing kit.
I have a ton f skin issues respiratory issues and can’t sleep constant diarrhea and on O2, my husband has lost 50 lbs before the cancer was caught in his throat. All after purchasing a duplex to take care of my disabled father on one side and me and my family on the other. Since then my husband has developed throat cancer and I am alway itchy and scared, aggitted and they recently did a tox screen at an ER and said I had meth in my system. I live in Washington where IF KNOWN t must be disclosed. How can you get it tested and if you live on septic with a leach field is’ it going into our water? My dads side of from the inside you can not tell they are the same property but it’s the same house, just separate sides. My 23 yr old son and his gf got into an accident and since moving home she has developed sinus ear and respiratory issues as well and my son is getting the skin symptoms. What if anything can I do Washington required disclosure but if no one knew is it a breach of anything. I’m the only one that drinks the water my he husband is from California and drinks bottled and has no skin issues and now my test negative but he has developed throat cancer in 2 years?? Never been a smoker or drinker. He is a pastor and sleeping as well. I feel like im always on manic mode, am a nurse so very familiar with mania??? How do you get it tested without having the income to immediately get out, my father is 87 Im now disabled and my husband is on chemo and radiation and have 2 kids that were in a head on, I can’t just leave it any advise because I am now broke. What do I do if I call to have it tested, how much does it cost, and will they put us all on the street?
Are you sure some of you aren’t on meth? People breaking in and contaminating your house and cars with meth/meth juices and they stole all your “evidence” yep sounds like tweaker stories to me seriously…get help. I also think maybe you are dealing with mold or something else. As a child I grew up very close to my cousin (more like a sister) who’s dad used to cook meth with is sitting in the kitchen by him. Never ever got any of the symptoms any of you describe (from residue no less) even though we were there while it was cooking and after yet some of you say years later btw this went on from ages 8-15 or so and we are now 42 (me and my cousin) and no lingering problems. ♀️
I moved in a housing commision last September I wasn’t sick ….. After two months I started getting sick with a thoart infection than con… Broccoli. Which I’ve never had in my life…. Con infection … I had test done from the doctor and all my test came back saying I’m healthy. And there weren’t any more test she can sent me she done every test … And to this day I’m still getting sick in this house … So i brought a drug kit to test my house it came up positive …so I contact housing and they refused to do anything to test my home .. I’ve put in doctor’s letters and alot of stuff… So I put complaint in I got a phone call …than yesterday two people turn up to test my home. .. I just need to get out