How to Test for Methamphetamine - Crossroads Engineers

[Pages:2]How to Test for Methamphetamine

This is a short course for home inspectors or homeowners who wish to test for meth in a home or apartment. It follows Utah State rules.

What to Use

ALS (aka Datachem) provides a free kit. It is made up of rubber gloves, an instruction page, a chain of custody form, alcohol, a gauze pad, and a container for the sample. Because this kit is free and complete, we recommend you use it.

If you don't have time or don't want to get one in Salt Lake, you can build it. Get 4x4 gauze pads and alcohol from the first aid department in your local store, and use a clean tight container such as film canisters to store the sample. Use rubber gloves to avoid contaminating the sample and/or to protect yourself. Finally, if you don't have a square template to use, you're just trying to duplicate 100 sq cm. That's about 4 inches square.

Composite vs Grab Sample

You can take only one sample per test, or you can take up to three. Taking one sample per test is called a Grab sample. Taking more than one is called a composite sample, because you're compositing various locations. The advantage of the grab sample is that if it comes back positive or negative, you know that area is clean ? or it's not. But many grab samples are expensive. Hence, composite samples.

When the composite sample comes back, and assuming you took 3 samples on one composite test, then you must divide the results by 3. This means that if you get a result of 0.6, then you divide that result by 3 and you get an average composite result of 0.2.

By contrast, if you get a sample result of 4.5 on a composite of 3 samples, then your average reading per sample is 4.5 / 3, or 1.5. This would mean that the 3 samples average to a reading that is higher than the state's legal definition for a contaminated home.

Another Important Concept: Use vs Labs

The laws about meth were meant to crack down on meth labs. Based on results, they succeeded ? the number of meth contaminated houses is way, way down compared to how it used to be. Another fact is also true: the vast majority of contaminated homes in today's real estate market never were meth labs. Instead, they were the site of meth use ? someone may have contaminated the place simply by smoking a joint or two in there. While this was not the intent of the legislation, it is the result at this point. If the result is below 10, you probably have meth use. If it's much higher, say beyond 50 or 100, you have an old lab. You need to be clear on the difference as you advise your clients.

Health Effects of Meth Contaminated Homes

No-one knows that answer ? especially in homes where contamination is from use.

Where to Test (& Where Not)

There are so many wrong places to test for meth contamination. Bottom line is: if you test in the wrong place, you may get a false negative result. When someone else tests again later on and gets a high reading. Your client starts looking at you real hard.

Whether the home was a lab or the site of meth use, all air gets filtered through the cold air returns and into the furnace. Hence, the best place to take the test is at the cold air returns (if there are multiple returns you may need to do a composite sample), or just upstream of the furnace filter. All roads from the cold air returns lead to the filter area, so this is an excellent area to test.

Don't make me tell you not to test the filter itself ? it gets replaced. Test the sheet metal upstream of the filter.

Other Places to Test (or Not)

If you are thinking that contamination may come from Use, don't test walls, sinks, floors, ceiling fans, etc. That's not where the highest level of contamination will be. Testing there will only skew the results lower and make you look bad.

If you see reasons to believe that there may have been a meth lab (iodine stains, severe messiness, poisons & chemicals that are out of place), then testing the area will be up to your discretion as to the best location. Wherever else you test, don't forget the cold air returns, and if you do test other areas, don't combine samples from other areas with the cold air return samples.

If you do see random chemicals that don't belong, protect yourself. Assume it's a meth lab and call the police. You can inspect it later, but keep yourself safe.

State Definitions

The Utah State government recently changed the legal definition of meth contamination from 0.1 microgram per 100 sq cm to 1.0 ug/100 sq cm. This is because the previous number was considered to be unjustifiably harsh. Be clear that any meth result that is less than 1.0 ug/cm2 is legally clean ? if you tested the right place. You don't have to get a zero reading for the place to be OK.

By the way, the lab will never report a zero reading. Instead, if it comes back below the detection limit of 0.1, they will report is as ND, or non-detect.

Fees

The fee for these services is up to you, but most inspectors charge from $100 to $200. If the client needs results back fast (2 days), ALS charges you around $75 for a rush job. Regular 5 day turnarounds are $35 for inspectors. Make sure they know you're an inspector or they'll assume you're a homeowner and charge you more.

Which Homes are at Greater Risk

The official answer is that any home can be a candidate for meth contamination. Sometimes it gets smoked while grandma is not looking. Some say it could be "worn" into the home. Based on experience, the flag goes un under certain conditions: when it's a small, trashed home, when it's an apartment, when it had renters, and when the staining and trashiness is bad. I also think "Meth" when I inspect a home that has been completely remodeled. This is often because the previous set of conditions were in place, and it WAS trashed. Usually when remodelers do their thing, they leave the furnace duct system alone. Hence the contamination continues ? even if the place sparkles.

For More Information

More info on ALS lab can be found at methtraining.htm. If you have any other questions, please call me, Garth Haslem, CEI / Crossroads, at (801) 763-1932. I can also be reached at ghaslem@.

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