DANGERS LINGER IN METH LABS

Toxic Chemicals Put Cops at Risk

The crackdown on methamphetamine production in the Midwest has left a
rural countryside pocked with abandoned and destroyed labs. Hidden
away in barns and farm houses and trailers, the residue of illicit
meth labs has leaked toxic chemicals into ditches and farm fields.

Indiana will spend millions this year cleaning more than 800 meth
labs, a considerable increase from 1994 when drug officials found only
four labs. Kentucky and other Midwest states have seen similar
increases in recent years.

The production of just one pound of methamphetamine typically creates
six pounds of hazardous waste, according to the Drug Enforcement
Administration. An average lab costs $4,500 to clean up.

"That waste can include corrosive liquids, acid vapors, solvents and
other materials that can attack mucous membranes, skin, eyes and the
respiratory track," DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson said during a
summer stop in Lexington.

Meth making is popular because ingredients are cheap and easy to get.
Drain cleaner and lithium batteries, both used to make meth, can be
found on shelves in grocery stores and gas stations.

But "they're very harmful if utilized in the wrong way," said Tony
King, resident agent in charge at the Drug Enforcement Administration
office in Louisville.

The dangers of another ingredient, anhydrous ammonium, which often is
stolen from farmers' fields, cannot be underestimated, said Detective
Joe Moran of the Owensboro Police Department. "It just saturates the
human body and burns the hide off of you," Moran said.

Police officers handling meth cases face dangers foreign to other
types of drug busts.

"If you go in and find a stash of marijuana, cocaine or heroin, you
don't have to wear a $2,000 hazardous materials suit to go in and make
a seizure," Hutchinson said.

State police troopers are trained now to call in specially trained
teams when they find meth labs, said Sgt. Bob Heuple, of the Dry Ridge
post.

"If officers find a lab and the house is cleared and everybody's out,
we stand by and find somebody to clean it up," he said.

State police are training people at each post on how to properly
handle the chemicals involved in making methamphetamine, he said.

Four years ago Kentucky State Police found 20 to 23 labs in the state.
This year police expect to find 300 to 400 labs statewide.

Kentucky law enforcement agencies reported finding 160 meth
laboratories, dump sites or abandoned equipment in 2001, according to
the DEA. In Indiana for the same year, the figure was 499. In Ohio it
was 86.

The increase in numbers has raised the awareness of firefighters, who
want to know more about the best ways to handle the chemicals.

Ken Knipper, emergency management director in Campbell County, said he
received a call last week from a life squad team who wanted training.

"So far we've had some minor things happen," he said. "We've never had
a major problem with it, but they are becoming more prominent."

"Sometimes a call comes in and somebody's hurt," Knipper said. "They
want to know what to do."

Lab explosions have gutted houses and apartments and burned motel
rooms. A few years ago, before the dangers were known, law enforcement
officers in street clothes would dismantle the labs, sometimes tossing
them into the trunk of a police car, King said.

He recalls being called to small police stations and finding meth labs
on desktops.

"Your eyes would get really big and you'd say, Chief So-and-So, we'd
better evacuate the building," King said.

Today, officers wear suits with masks and gloves to dismantle labs,
while an ambulance and fire engine wait nearby.

Some examples of meth dangers:

- - Outside Bowling Green, Ky., authorities this summer found six tanks
containing 4,000 gallons of anhydrous ammonium buried in a pit in a
barn. It took four days to withdraw and about $15,000 to $20,000 to
clean up.

- - In April, about 20 people were evacuated from Westwood Elementary
School in New Castle, Ind., after officers stopped a pickup driven by
a suspected meth maker. Officers reported strong ammonia fumes.
Anhydrous ammonium was found in the back.

- - In Utica, Ky., state police troopers went door-to-door last year to
evacuate homes after a botched theft of anhydrous ammonium. A Western
Kentucky highway was shut down and seven people who inhaled ammonia
were treated at a hospital