METH FIRES DROP STATE LAW GETS CREDIT, OFFICIALS SAY

An official removes a jug from a home in Springfield, Mo., after a
meth bust. It was one of the largest meth labs discovered in the area.

WASHINGTON - State and local fire officials are crediting Oklahoma's
tough anti-meth law with significantly reducing the number of fires
and explosions at illegal meth labs.

"It's been a dramatic impact," said Chris Bain, director of
operations for the Oklahoma State Firefighters Association.

The highly combustible chemicals used to make methamphetamine have
made fires and explosions at meth labs a problem for first responders
across the country.

In Oklahoma, those accidents have decreased since a law took effect
in April 2004 that restricts public access to pseudoephedrine, a key
ingredient in meth.

"Fires are down since the law went into effect," said Danny Tracey,
Muskogee's fire chief.

Oklahoma has experienced a total of 133 meth-related fires since
2000, according to federal officials. The number of fires declined
from 33 in 2003 to just seven last year. So far this year, Oklahoma
has reported no meth-related fires or explosions.

Under Oklahoma's law, medication containing pseudoephedrine can be
sold only from behind pharmacy counters. And the amount of
pseudophedrine one person can purchase is limited to nine grams,
equivalent to about 300 cold medicine pills.

Tracey said that, before the law took affect, 35 percent of the
state's fires were related to meth.

The law, a model for legislation pending in Congress, has driven meth
makers to other states where they can buy the pseudoephedrine,
thereby reducing by about 80 percent the number of meth labs seized
by Oklahoma law enforcement authorities.

Nationally, as the illicit methamphetamine trade continues to push
eastward into more densely populated areas, the risk of fires and
explosions is becoming a deadlier threat, law enforcement officials say.

"These labs are just so highly volatile that during the cooking
process, they often explode," said Mark Gwyn, director of the
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. "In the law enforcement arena,
we've been telling people that if this ever gets a hold in our urban
areas, we just won't have the resources to control it."

Meth has been moving steadily eastward from the West and Midwest over
the past five years. It was identified as the No. 1 drug problem by
law enforcement agencies in 45 states, according to a National
Association of Counties survey released Tuesday.

"Meth is invading our communities like wildfire," North Carolina
Attorney General Roy Cooper said. "It's not moving eastward. It's here."

In North Carolina, the number of meth labs or meth dumpsites seized
by police increased from six in 1999 to 317 in 2004, according to the
Drug Enforcement Administration. In New York, seizures increased from
one to 28. In West Virginia, from five to 145.

And meth-related hospital admissions have increased dramatically in
East Coast cities such as Baltimore and Newark, N.J., according to
the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

"The number of clandestine methamphetamine laboratories is growing
and their locations are shifting from isolated, rural facilities to
houses, trailers and apartments in more densely populated urban
areas," the Arkansas Department of Health reported last year.

In Tennessee, meth labs have been found in nearly every major city in
the state, "everywhere from hotel rooms to apartment complexes and
vehicles," the state's Bureau of Investigation reported.

Meth's migration into cities and towns presents a nightmare scenario
for first responders and environmental officials because the
chemicals used to make the drug are so combustible and toxic.

Eric Lawrence, a drug forensic expert for the Indiana State Police,
called meth labs "an immediate threat to public safety."

"Fifty percent of our drug labs are discovered accidentally," he
said. "The other reason we find them is after a fire or explosion."

Nationally, law enforcement officials found 2,304 meth labs from 2000
through May 20 this year because the labs caught fire or exploded,
according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The number of those incidents peaked at 639 in 2003 and dropped to
275 last year, even though methamphetamine availability, production
and distribution are increasing nationally. So far this year, there
have been 71 meth-lab fires and explosions.

From January 2000 through June 2004, there were 1,791 meth-related
spills, fires or explosions in 15 of the 16 states - Alabama,
Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New
Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah,
Washington and Wisconsin - that report such incidents to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.

Children of meth manufacturers often are present while the drug is
being cooked in mom and pop labs, an added potential for disaster.

Since 2000, nine children have died in meth-lab accidents and scores
have been injured. Thousands have been exposed to the highly
addictive drug and its toxic byproducts.

The drug's ingredients - acids, bases, metals solvents, and salts -
soak into fabrics and porous surfaces and produce toxic gases that
find their way into ventilation systems.

"Virtually all items within the house, as well as all people, pets,
toys, etc., become contaminated with methamphetamine," John Martyny,
an industrial hygienist at the National Jewish Medical and Research
Center, testified at a March 3 congressional hearing.

Martyny said airborne levels of meth could exist in a lab for as long
as six months after a "cook."