13 October 2015 – Author: Rebecca Puddy – Source: The Australian
It is only a matter of time before a child dies in a house that was once used as a meth lab, clean-up companies have warned.
Steamatic national marketing director Mark Silveira said business was booming for cleaning companies across the nation after a rise in the number of meth labs unearthed in Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
For Australians renting out their investment properties, the news is all bad, with the costs of decontaminating properties sometimes reaching $100,000.
Mr Silveira said insurance companies often did not cover the cost of decontamination, leaving homeowners with a big bill.
“The big issue is that people don’t understand the impact chemicals have when they walk into these places,” he said.
“In some cases, domestic cleaners will just not do it. A new family moves in and a kid crawls on the floor.
“In America, this has happened and children have died.”
Most methamphetamine labs are found in rental properties, but others had been discovered in hotels, cars and caravans, he said.
Clean-up crews may encounter booby-trapped properties, attack dogs and aggressive drug users looking for a hit, he said.
“They are clever about protecting their places and booby-trap them,” Mr Silveira said.
Clean-up companies generally used foam-delivered chemicals to spray the houses, he said, protecting themselves head to toe in hazardous material suits. “It might as well be Ebola.”
In the worst cases, houses had to be knocked down, he said.
Under government guidelines, police must report the property to the local council after raiding a meth lab.
Mr Silveira said in many cases these reports were not being followed through with appropriate action from the councils.
“I guarantee that some of the rental houses out there have not been decontaminated,” Mr Silveira said. “They just use a different real estate agent. The whole system is a mess — some councils have a contaminated land register but most do nothing.”
The Australian Crime Commission’s Illicit Drug Data Report for 2013-14 shows South Australia and Victoria recorded the biggest number of meth labs in a decade.
Queensland had the greatest proportion, accounting for nearly 50 per cent of detections.
Meth Lab Cleaners managing director Josh Marsden said there was likely to be tens of thousands of properties that were contaminated across Australia.
South Australia Police Superintendent Graham Goodwin, who heads the Serious and Organised Crime Branch, said police had uncovered labs that placed the public in significant danger. In one instance, police found a lab under a child’s bed, he said.
“These are very dangerous environments, very toxic, very volatile, very explosive,” he said.
“These people have limited knowledge, limited experience in these things.
“They are mixing highly toxic and dangerous chemicals and acids and they are doing it in very uncontrolled environments.”
