According to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, between 2003 and 2008 there were 621 methamphetamine incidents, including labs, dumpsites, or chemical and glassware seizures in West Virginia. Expand that to include national incidents over the same five year period and you have 67,185 incidents.

Remediation of these toxic meth lab sites raises environmental issues; do the dangerous particles remain in the air? If that is the case, painting the walls and cleaning the carpets doesn’t solve the problem—but simply covers it up temporarily.

Suzanne Bell, assistant professor of forensic and analytical chemistry in the C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry at West Virginia University, is doing research to help clean up in the aftermath of these dangerous drug crimes.

Bell received the Characterization and Validation of Ion Mobility Spectrometry in Clandestine Laboratory Remediation grant for $77,471. The research is a joint grant effort with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Bell and her research group will investigate if the standard cleaning and purifying procedures used to clean homes and apartments which previously served as meth labs really work.

“It’s important to clean it up properly because so many toxic chemicals are used in the preparation of methamphetamine and demolition of the site is not always possible or appropriate. The danger to future occupants is chronic exposure to residuals of these hazardous compounds,” Bell said.

Bell and graduate students, Rona Nishikawa, Lucy Oldfield, Travis Doria, and Holly McCall, will simulate meth labs to gauge the effect of the chemicals used on living environments. They also hope to visit former labs to gather samples. Field sites provide the best research environment because it is impossible to simulate an entire meth lab in the academic laboratory.

Third year doctoral candidate and research team member Holly McCall knew she wanted to work with Dr. Bell when she applied to WVU.

“Her research is a nontraditional application of analytical chemistry, which we base in forensic science,” McCall said.

“Since the toxicity of methamphetamine in airborne particles remains unknown, the health of those personnel in charge of cleaning up clandestine labs and the future inhabitants of the location are at risk. It is our goal to determine whether these locations can be safely remediated, such that no further inhabitants will be harmed,” McCall said.

The findings of this research will have applications for all 50 states, as they deal with clean up of these dangerous, toxic drug labs.

Source: West Virginia University

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