Cleaning up a
meth lab is toxic and expensive and dangerous.
ON A SUNNY winter afternoon, narcotics detective Chris Lyon turns off a country lane outside the town of Monticello in southeastern Kentucky, the part of the state hardest hit by the
meth lab boom.
Once discovered on a property, a
meth lab cleanup needs to be handled swiftly and professionally.
Last year, a property developer caught running Scotland's first known crystal
meth lab had his prison sentence cut by more than half.
Linked by a series of waiting areas and corridors and overseen by jerry-rigged surveillance equipment, the rooms were evocative of such places as a bare-shelved drug-front store, a dropout commune,
meth labs, an underground Chinatown bazaar, and a Met-like gallery space, neatly wainscoted, displaying debris from all of the aforementioned areas as precious relics.
The effects of long-term exposure to toxic substances present in a
meth lab are not well researched, but potential concerns include increased risk of developing cancer, and risks of damage to the brain, liver, kidney, spleen, and immunologic system (Swetlow 2003).
Usually rolling
meth labs come into play in theft situations.
In 2004, law enforcement officials busted 1,370
meth labs in Arnold's home state alone.
I work as a one-man-band bureau reporter in Jackson County, and nearly every week I report on
meth lab busts.
For this reason, each former
meth lab or dumping ground must be treated as a potential hazardous waste site and cleaned up accordingly--and it's usually the property owner who foots the bill.
Also, the agency has held seminars to educate retailers and rental managers and maintenance personnel on the common chemicals and equipment typically used in a
meth lab.
It was one of the leading counties in the state with felony
meth lab prosecutions and was even on the national radar screen in terms of the number of
meth labs found in the county.