Meth Lab Homeowners

Indiana: The Sabatino meth lab home story

In 2006,  Julie McCoy Sabatino bought a small two-story house in Churubusco, Indiana, an affordable home where she dreamed of happy days together with her 10 year old son.  But, health problems began, just a few weeks after moving in to the home, when both she and her son began experiencing flu-like systems. They began having body aches, headaches, and respiratory problems that triggered her son’s asthma, requiring that he use a nebulizer to open up his airways, just so he could breath normally. [Read more...]

August 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment

TN Holt family update: Hope fades as meth lab bills pile up

holt-familySeveral months have passed, since I was first contacted by Rhonda Holt from Winchester, TN, and my most recent conversation with her was distressing. Despite all of what they have gone through, they still have a very steep hill to climb before they can see over the mountain of debt and health problems they’re [Read more...]

August 20, 2009 | 1 Comment

The Bates Family: Three tours in Iraq and and now a meth lab home

john-and-tyler-in-uniformJohn and Jessie Bates, a newlywed couple from Suquamish, had a healthy bank account, one car loan, and no debt, in 2008. John, 34, had completed three tours in Iraq with the U.S. navy, and came home to find a job as a pipefitter in Bangor. Jessie, 29, worked as a nanny, after leaving a job at Washington Mutual, so she could spend more time to spend with her son,Tyler. Tyler was a typical eight year old boy, enjoying [Read more...]

August 15, 2009 | 10 Comments

Missouri couple unprotected by meth lab disclosure law

jason-dowdell-michelle-dilorenzo

Jason Dowdell and Michelle Dilorenzo, a Missouri couple, should have known they were buying a contaminated meth lab home, according to the state’s disclosure law, but they didn’t. No one told them that the three bedroom house they bought would endanger their health and the health of the future children that they hoped to share [Read more...]

August 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment


Frontline News

Meth Lab Chemicals Cause Pancreatic Cancer In Utah Officer

rich-dukatz-homeA 46 year old, former narcotics officer from Utah, developed pancreatic cancer, that he attributed to his years of exposure to toxic meth lab chemicals.

A study about the toxic effects of meth lab chemicals on Utah First Responders failed to show a connection between their exposure and their illnesses.
However, researchers involved in the meth lab health study admit that the study they conducted study was small. (Click “read more” for video)

[Read more...]

December 4, 2008 | 1 Comment


Faces of Meth

Meet David Parnell former meth user, survivor, and teacher

david-parnellDavid Parnell, a former meth user from TN, has faced the meth dragon and has the battle scars to prove it.  His face, now pieced together by multiple surgeries, is a tribute to the doctors who helped put back what meth took away from him, the night it convinced him to take his own life.

Parnell talks about that fateful night, when his wife told him that she was leaving and [Read more...]

August 19, 2009 | 2 Comments

Son of Michael Douglas facing meth trafficking charges

cameron-douglasCameron Douglas, 30, son of actor Michael Douglas, was arrested by DEA agents for selling and distributing methamphetamine on July 28, in the meat district of NY, in an apartment rented by his famous father, Michael Douglas.

Prosecutors allege that Cameron Douglas shipped meth by FedEx across the country in exchange for thousands of [Read more...]

August 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Nicole Bobek: Olympic Skating Champion facing meth charges

Nicole Bobek, Olympic Skater

Nicole Bobek, 1995 Women's Olympic Skating Competition Title Winner

Nicole Bobek, former Olympic Figure Skating Champion is in the news again, but it’s certainly not good news this time.  She has been named as a “significant player” in a meth distribution ring that involves more than two dozen people, according to  Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio.

Nicole Bobek, 31,  is the only child of Jana Bobek.  Naturally, her mother is concerned [Read more...]

July 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment


Meth Labs Health Issues

US Soldiers sickened by chemical found in meth lab homes

National Guard members from Indiana, Oregon, and West Virginia, are among the other U.S. soliders and civilians who have filed lawsuits against KBR, Inc, a company that they say failed to protect their health, while they were working at a water treatment plant for them in Iraq in 2003.  Hexavalent chromium, also known as Chromium-6,  is a chemical that got national exposure in the [Read more...]

September 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment

What health problems do meth labs cause ?

The risk of injury from chemical exposure depends on the chemical itself, the concentration, the quantity, and the length and route of exposure. Chemicals may enter the body by being breathed, eaten, injected (by a contaminated needle or accidental skin prick), or absorbed by the skin, according to the Washington State Environmental Health and Safety Agency.  Anyone spending time in an active or former meth lab faces health riskand sometimes death. Children, because of their small [Read more...]

June 9, 2009 | 21 Comments

Chronic Toxicity: The meth lab toxins that keep on giving

What kind of health problems can be caused by living in a home that’s been used as a meth lab? Living in a former meth lab home that is still contaminated with toxic chemicals over a period of months or years can have long term effects on your health. Long term exposure to toxins is known as chronic toxicity.

Chronic toxicity, put simply, is the illness that arises  after you’ve been exposed to small amounts of toxic chemicals over a long period of time. According to the Partnership for a Drug Free America, chronic exposure to meth lab chemicals leads to chronic [Read more...]

April 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment


Letters

Does cleaning a house really well remove meth from home?

I just moved into a trailer that my boyfriends cousin lived in before us. they got busted for meth about a month ago. We had no idea that they were doing that stuff. Well I had no idea that the chemicals stay in the house after they get the labs out. I have a little baby and [Read more...]

October 14, 2009 | 2 Comments

An important message from the teenage son of a meth cook

Hi, my name is Justin. I am 14 yrs old, and my dad was a meth manufacturer. He did time in prison for it a few yrs back and it nearly broke my heart. I finally got back together with him and now he’s back in jail. It tears us apart so badly!

Please if u know any1 who uses or makes methamphetamine please please convince them 2 stop! U just never know what it could do 2 not only them, but u 2, depending on how close u r 2 them.

October 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Renter gets sick after living in bank repo meth lab home

My boys and I moved into a rental the end of June of this year.  The owner layed new carpet and new laminant (fake wood) flooring throughout the house except the bathrooms and kitchen, which still has the old laminant.  Everything is newly painted as well as the garage floor.  There was a small fire in the garage which still has leftover soot throughout the garage.  I found out the previous owner was kicked out due to [Read more...]

October 14, 2009 | 2 Comments

First time home buyer says meth lab disclosure nixed deal

I just backed out of buying my first house.  We were disclosed that it was a meth lab and didn’t think twice when we were told that the place was cleaned up.  We figured that the owner cleaning, venting, re-flooring, re-carpeting, re-painting and re-sealing everything that the place was good to go.  There was even a nice little official letter from the metro government telling us that [Read more...]

October 14, 2009 | 1 Comment


Viewpoints

The Meth epidemic according to Sheriffs and County Associations

The National Association of Counties found that methamphetamine is the number 1 illegal drug problem for 47 percent of the counties in the United States, a higher percentage than that of any other drug.

Methamphetamine labs are costly to clean up in that every pound of methamphetamine produced can yield up to 5 pounds of toxic waste, representing a public danger to adults and children.

Crime related to methamphetamine abuse continues to increase, with 55 percent of sheriffs reporting increases in robberies and burglaries during the last year. [Read more...]

November 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Effingham County Georgia Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie

“We’ve put a big dent in the drug traffic in this county, but if you draw back, it’ll come back. Anything that goes unchecked comes back. We still have some meth labs, but they are hard to find because of the reputation we have.” -Effingham County, Georgia Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie

Drug busts in Effingham County have resulted in the confiscation of $170,000 in cash, 24 cars, and 3 homes.

Source: Article “McDuffie: Major dent put in meth labs” by Patrick Donahue for the Effingham Herald. net, posted June 30, 2008, accessed on July 1, 2008

July 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Meth lab cooks are like terrorists says Florida fire marshal

When detectives from the Bureau of Fire and Arson Investigators from the Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office arrived at a meth lab at Fort Walton beach, they found more than a few Coleman fuel cans and empty Sudafed packets. They found an escape plan that would allow the meth cooks to detonate more than two dozen pipe bombs that protected the lab. The meth cooks had planned to [Read more...]

June 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment