STUPAK CO-SPONSORS NEW METH LAB CLEANUP LAW

WASHINGTON -- Recent legislation passed by the U.S. House of
Representatives charges the Environmental Protection Agency with
developing guidelines to assist state and local authorities in
cleaning up former methamphetamine lab sites.

U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, co-sponsored and voted for the bill.

Stupak said the legislation would help communities across Michigan
clean up meth labs and the toxic mess they leave behind.

"Methamphetamine labs are often found in residential settings like
houses, apartments or hotel rooms," Stupak said. "Because the
chemicals used in making methamphetamine are so volatile, the toxic
residue left behind can threaten the health of whoever occupies that
space next.

"While some states have already passed laws that require the
remediation of former meth labs, there is no good health-based data
to guide that process," Stupak said.

In addition to establishing federal guidelines for states to follow
in cleaning up the sites of former meth labs, the bill would also
direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology to consult
with the EPA in developing technologies to detect meth labs,
emphasizing field test kits for law enforcement.

The measure also instructs the National Academy of Sciences to study
the long-term health impacts of meth exposure on first responders and
on children taken from meth lab sites, said Stupak, a former Michigan
State Police trooper and Escanaba city police officer.

Meth threatens American communities. The Drug Enforcement
Administration reports more than 340 meth labs were seized in
Michigan in 2005 and more than 350 kilograms of meth were seized in
the state during the year.

Stupak is founder and current co-chair of the U.S. House Law
Enforcement Caucus. One of Stupak's first pieces of legislation to
pass Congress and be signed into law was a bill helping to outlaw the
drug CAT, or methcathinone, a drug similar to meth that was prevalent
in the U.P. and upper Midwest in the early 1990s.