From Kim O'Toole
I was shocked to read such a sensationalist piece on the supposed hazards of illegal meth labs (26 April, p 32). Anyone with even a little chemical knowledge will know that the chemicals referred to are unlikely to cause problems weeks or months after the drug lab operators have left.
Hydrogen chloride gas, for example, (readily available in solution from hardware stores) disperses rapidly and would have caused choking even at low concentrations. Any residual drugs or drug “precursors” would have been found and disposed of or reported.
My guess is that the new occupants of these houses, when they experienced health problems for whatever reason, latched onto the discovery that the place had once been a drug lab and used it to convince gullible and ignorant authorities to help them. The real danger would have been to the drug lab operators, from toxic fumes and solvent explosions during one of their methamphetamine “cooks”.
Penrith, New South Wales, Australia
