Methamphetamine impacts law enforcement, social services, public health facilities and courtrooms. Meth labs are a concern due to the high risk of explosion and fire for persons making drugs. With family and children present during manufacturing, the situation remains dangerous also because of the waste products and contamination of the home/manufacturing area. The overall concern is the safety of individuals, the improper chemical disposal by Meth cooks, the lack of health risk assessment due to contamination levels, proper clean-up, and re-entry by families and individuals into these sites.
Rules and regulations, effective April 1, 2005, established decontamination standards for property that has been used for the manufacture of methamphetamine. These standards require a responsible party to:
- Perform a pre-decontamination assessment to determine the level of contamination and the scope of remediation;
- decontaminate the property; and
- document the activities from the above procedures.
The health department is required to inform the property owner that the property was used as a methamphetamine lab and must be vacated until the remediation actions are completed as outlined in the General Statutes.
For the State rules regarding Illegal Meth Labs for Environmental Health