Failure To Inspect For Meth Contamination Could Create Future Financial, Health Havoc For Homebuyers

The New York Times reports:

• The spacious home where the newly wed Rhonda and Jason Holt began their family in 2005 was plagued by mysterious illnesses. The Holts’ three babies were ghostlike and listless, with breathing problems that called for respirators, repeated trips to the emergency room and, for the middle child, Anna, the heaviest dose of steroids a toddler can take. Ms. Holt, a nurse, developed migraines. She and her husband, a factory worker, had kidney ailments.(1)

• It was not until February, more than five years after they moved in, that the couple discovered the root of their troubles: their house, across the road from a cornfield in this town some 70 miles south of Nashville, was contaminated with high levels of methamphetamine left by the previous occupant, who had been dragged from the attic by the police. The Holts’ next realization was almost as devastating: it was up to them to spend the $30,000 or more that cleanup would require.

• With meth lab seizures on the rise nationally for the first time since 2003, similar cases are playing out in several states, drawing attention to the problem of meth contamination, which can permeate drywall, carpets, insulation and air ducts, causing respiratory ailments and other health problems.

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• Meth contamination can bring financial ruin to families like that of Francisca Rodriguez. The family dog began having seizures nine days after the Rodriguezes moved into their home in Grapevine, Tex., near Dallas, and their 6-year-old son developed a breathing problem similar to asthma, said Ms. Rodriguez, 35, a stay-at-home mother of three. After learning from neighbors that the three-bedroom ranch-style home had been a known “drug house,” the family had it tested. The air ducts had meth levels more than 100 times higher than the most commonly cited limit beyond which cleanup is typically required. [...] They moved out, throwing away most of their possessions because they could not be cleaned, and are letting the house go into foreclosure. “It makes you crazy,” Ms. Rodriguez said. “Our credit is ruined, we won’t be able to buy another house, somebody exposed my kids to meth, and my dog died.”

For the story, see Illnesses Afflict Homes With a Criminal Past.

Go here, Go here and go here for other posts on home-based methamphetamine labs.

(1) Some of the health problems associated with living in a meth-contaminated home appear to be similar to those currently being attributed to the "Chinese drywall" problem being experienced in some parts of the country. meth lab yak