Meth Lab byproducts

[John Bean]

I am developing a training course for our personnel, and need to know some specific atmospheric hazards we can encounter at a Meth Lab. I've searched the web and cound a lot of "maybes" but I need the Why's and Wherefore's so I can answer the questions intellegently and using science, not speculation.

Thanks,
John Bean
Howard County Fire

[Aerial 131]

Contact the Portland Police Bureau or the Pierce County Washington Task Force. i have been to their training and they had a list of what the toxic issues were, both gas, solids, liquids, etc. sorry I looked and could not find my list, probably (loaned out), never seen again.

Don Zimmmerman

[LT.MikeAFD]

John, We just had a class last night on Meth Labs. We contacted our local Drug Enforcement Unit and they set us up with a DEA agent that lives in our area. He had a nice slide presentation and some VCR footage that he showed. He didnt go into any specifics as far as what the IDLH was of any particular atmosphere but some of the Chemicals that he mentioned were, Anhydrous Amonia, Phosgene gas, Muriatic and other types of Acid's, Ether and other types of so called "Starter Fluids", they also use red phosphorus, which subjected to certain elements and heat converts to white phosphorus. The list is quite extensive and changes almost everyday. Everytime a specific chemical is regulated so that the Labs cant get it anymore they come up with another way of making it or substituting it. I hope this has helped, if I can help anymore please feel free to contact me.

[email protected]

[NFDLT55]

A great topic. Im doing a little research myself, and so far i've found that MethLabs produce a lot of different acids, and a lot flamables. The most common acid that i've read about was HCl (hydro-chloric acid) and some bases too. Like amonia..