GRANT WILL HELP PROTECT CHILDREN FOUND NEAR METH LABS

Part of an $82,000 grant awarded to the Salisbury Police Department
will be used in decontaminating children exposed to toxic fumes and
other hazardous byproducts of methamphetamine labs.

Police Lt. David Belk told members of the Community Child Protection
Team at their quarterly meeting Tuesday that decontamination
equipment and new clothing for children found in raid situations will
be purchased with the grant from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the
Middle District of North Carolina. Participants in a June 20 workshop
will fine-tune a Drug-Endangered Children's Response Plan drafted by
the Rowan County Department of Social Services in October. Director
Sandra Wilkes said the draft was based on a response plan adopted by
Watauga County, one of the first counties in the state to address
drug-endangered children in a formal plan. Social Services asked the
Salisbury Police Department to further refine the draft, she said.

The plan also addresses ways agency workers can protect themselves on
home visits, Belk said, including what to look for when they suspect
the presence of a methamphetamine lab or other drug situation and
what action to take when they encounter signs of drug activity.

Tom Brewer, Children's Services Program administrator for the
Department of Social Services, said the plan also deals with
decontamination, medical treatment and the placement and custody of
children found in drug-endangered situations. An attachment to the
plan deals with the hazards of specific chemicals used in methamphetamine labs.

The drug is processed with common household items, and the
manufacturing process emits harmful -- sometimes lethal -- gases. The
chemicals are also explosive. One of the big issues in dealing with
methamphetamine labs is safety, Belk said, and it's important to take
the proper precautions to ensure the lives and health of children,
agency workers and law enforcement officers are not endangered.

"Methamphetamine is a concern for us because it is so volatile," he
said. The harmful fumes and byproducts of the manufacturing process
"continue and linger for some time."

Houses and other buildings where methamphetamine labs have been set
up require extensive, costly cleanup before they are safe for new
residents. Battalion Chief David Morris of the Salisbury Fire
Department, which heads up the county's Hazardous Materials Response
Unit, will be at the June 20 workshop to discuss protection and
decontamination measures. Belk said the grant will also be used to
buy eight self-contained breathing devices with full-face masks for
use in methamphetamine lab raids, filters and spare cylinders for the
devices and sophisticated surveillance cameras for investigations.

Part of the grant will also be set aside for specialized training and
overtime pay for officers as well as operating expenses. In answer to
a question by Chris Chaney of Rowan Partnership for Children, Belk
said the department had only encountered one situation in which a
child was exposed to toxic fumes and byproducts of a methamphetamine
lab. "And that's one too many," Belk said.

In dealing with that situation, he said officials talked on the scene
about the best way to decontaminate and seek medical attention for
the child. The Drug-Endangered Children's Response Plan sets a
protocol to follow in future cases. Clayton Cone of Nazareth
Children's Home asked if restrictions on buying ingredients such as
pseudoephedrine cold medicine had reduced the number of
methamphetamine labs in the county.

Belk said the number of arrests since 2004 has dropped. "I think some
of it comes from that because it is harder to get the products," he
said. Still, the problem continues as "a front-burner issue," Belk
said. "It's all over the country, and Rowan County has our share as
well." Also at the Community Child Protection Team meeting, Cone
presented a report on the ACE (Acute Care and Evaluation) Program at
Nazareth Children's Home, and Wilkes reviewed the Department of
Social Services' foster child placement policy.