EPA issues voluntary meth-lab cleanup guidelines

The Environmental Protection Agency has released its first voluntary blueprints for cleaning up methamphetamine labs, a move that may lead several state agencies to change their practices. About 20 states currently require meth labs to be cleaned up before a new family moves into the home, Christine Byers of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. EPA's plan describes everything from cleaning carpeting to plumbing, and cost $1.75 million over two years to create.

Illinois requires home buyers to be told of a former meth lab before they purchase the house, but cleanup guidelines for property owners are voluntary. The current two-page guideline is dwarfed by EPA's 48-page document. "We would not recommend people try to do these cleanups on their own because of the risk of exposures to hazardous chemicals," Kathy Marshall, an environmental toxicologist for the Illinois Department of Public Health, told Byers.

About two-thirds of meth labs are in residential settings, and Byers reports one in five meth lab busts nation-wide occurs in Illinois or Missouri. The Post-Dispatch reported on Missouri and Illinois families who were unknowingly living in former meth labs, where contamination levels were high enough to be condemned in 18 states, in October. The stories prompted the Illinois Attorney General's Office to post addresses of former meth labs online. (Read more)