Abrupt closures at public libraries in Boulder, Littleton, Englewood and Arvada due to methamphetamine contamination are a cause for concern, if not alarm.
But the initial shock of the local and national headlines needs to be put in the proper context, said Mike Van Dyke, PhD, industrial hygienist and associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and the Center for Work, Health & Environment at the Colorado School of Public Health.
Van Dyke and his team at National Jewish Health did much of the formative research for the state regulations that officials use in determining the need for closure, cleaning and remediation following detection of a specific level of methamphetamine contamination.
“The regulations in place now were originally focused on the exposure risk to first responders coming into active methamphetamine laboratories, as well as what kinds of levels of contamination would we find in these environments after they'd been cooked in,” Van Dyke said. “Exposure is really key. And the possibility for exposure in these libraries and public spaces is really quite low.”
In Colorado, the contamination threshold for a residential space is 0.5 micrograms of meth per 100 square centimeters. With no contamination limit set specifically for public spaces, officials currently apply the residential threshold when determining need for closure and cleanup. Given the spate of recent closures, those regulations might change.
In the following Q&A, Van Dyke explains how methamphetamine contamination regulations were formed, how the public health risk in these cases remains low, as well as what potential health symptoms would look like with meth exposure.