Illicit drugs factories create toxic mayhem

TOXIC leftovers from illegal drugs labs that manufacture methamphetamine
have become a multimillion dollar headache for California, and the problem
is spreading to other parts of the US.

Hazardous materials specialists in California estimate that cleaning
abandoned labs will cost $7.65 million this year, nearly 85 per cent of the
state's emergency cleanup budget. "It's a booming business for us,
unfortunately," says Don Plain of the California Environmental Protection
Agency in Sacramento.

Methamphetamine manufacture usually begins with a cold remedysuch as
ephedrine or pseudoephedrineor a compound with a similar chemical
structure. The reagents used to transform these raw materials to
methamphetamine are often highly toxic, flammable, explosive or
carcinogenic. The production of 1 kilogram of methamphetamine generates 7
kilograms of leftovers including hydriotic acid, red phosphorus, benzene,
freon, hydrogen chloride gas, ethyl ether and sodium hydroxide.

"The common scenario is you go in there and you can't believe they haven't
blown themselves up," says Donn Zuroski of the Office of Emergency Response
of the federal government's Environmental Protection Agency in San
Francisco, which is called in whenever groundwater is contaminated. "There
are a lot of dangerous and toxic chemicals stored haphazardly."

Plain says the fumes in one house were so strong that paint on the walls
liquefied. Sometimes buildings have to be demolished. Although the problem
is particularly acute in California, where cleanup teams are being called
out twice as often as two years ago, Zuroski says that problems with
methamphetamine labs are rising all across the US, as illicit consumption
of the drug increases.

Lou Bergeron, Santa Cruz