If you have a property that is contaminated by meth in some manner, there are a number of preliminary steps that you need to take in advance of diving into the task of remediation itself. Overriding everything associated with meth decontamination is understanding that you really cannot effectively engage in this type of work on your own. You need to engage the services of a reputable meth decontamination company. With that said, as a preliminary matter to a meth decontamination company going to work at your property, you need to make certain that any state, local, or institutional standards are met in regard to addressing meth contamination.
Three Primary Sources of Meth Decontamination Standards
In the United States, there are three primary potential sources of meth decontamination standards:
- State governmental agencies
- Local governmental agencies
- Institutions, businesses, and other entities
When sampling and testing for meth are to be undertaken, care must be taken to comply with any existing testing protocols that might exist on the state, local, or institutional levels. The same holds true for ensuring compliance with any possibly existing decontamination standards.
Two important additional points need to be made. First, the federal government has generally ceded responsibility for establishing meth testing and decontamination standards to state and local governments.
Second, as will be discussed more shortly, the presence of meth decontamination standard on the state, local, and institutional levels are not universal. On some level, the development and implementation of such decontamination-related standards is something of a work in progress at this juncture in time.
Contact State and Local Government Before Commencing Meth Decontamination Process
Before meth sampling and testing and before meth decontamination is commenced, contact must be made with local and state governmental authorities to answer two important questions:
Does a governmental authority on the local or state level maintain meth testing or decontamination standards?
If so, what are those standards?
The reality is that in this day and age, you are likely to find meth decontamination standards on both the state and local level in many locations. If that is the case, you very well may find that these protocols largely are the same.
On the other hand, there are many situations in which that is not the case. If there is some variation on meth testing and decontamination standards between the local and state levels of government, one level of government is apt to have more stringent standards than the other. If that is the case, by following the more stringent protocols, you will be in the best possible position of remaining in compliance during all of the meth testing and decontamination processes.
Review Institutional Policies Before Commencing Meth Decontamination Process
Many different types of institutions have developed meth testing standards and meth decontamination standards. For the purposes of this discussion, institutional policies of this nature include entities from businesses to governmental agencies themselves to schools to churches or medical facilities to a wide range of different types of entities. (The reference to governmental entities in regard to institutional standards means meth testing and decontamination protocols to be followed within such an agency itself.)
Before embarking on a meth decontamination effort, including testing, you must first seek to identify any institutional protocols on the subject. You must make certain that you remain in compliance with institutional meth decontamination guidelines.
If for some reason institutional meth decontamination protocols conflict with governmental guidelines, compliance to state or local guidelines takes precedence. The fact is that in developing institutional guidelines in the first instance, care must be taken to ensure that they are in compliance with state and local requirements. Moreover, institutional guidelines should be routinely reviewed to ensure that they do remain in compliance with state and local meth decontamination standards.
Fentanyl Decontamination Standards
Fentanyl has become a major public health issue in the United States. This includes in the state of California. Compared to meth, the fentanyl epidemic is something of a newer public health concern. As a consequence, state and local institutional fentanyl decontamination standards are only now becoming better formulated.
As of 2019, a pair of states had made way in the process of determining, establishing, and implementing decontamination guidelines and associated testing protocols for sites deemed contaminated by fentanyl. With that said, both Utah and Michigan have not fully crafted and implemented comprehensive fentanyl decontamination standards.
There are local governmental authorities that have made further progress in establishing fentanyl decontamination standards. This includes some localities in California, including in Southern California. With that said, there remains much work to be done when it comes to the establishment of localized fentanyl decontamination standards and associated testing protocols.
There is a considerable number of institutions of different types that have fleshed out comprehensive fentanyl decontamination standards and associated testing protocols. These include entities for businesses to educational institutions to governmental agencies to schools and an array of other institutions and establishments in between.
As standards are being developed for addressing fentanyl decontamination, ensuring that a remediation effort is safely and thoroughly undertaken really does fall on the shoulders of a fentanyl cleaning company. This reality only underscores the vital necessity of selecting a reputable, established fentanyl cleaning company if you are ever taxed with the task of ensuring that a contaminated property is remediated and returned to a fully safe condition.