Article: "How long can meth residue contaminate a house?"

According to the article, researchers investigating a house that had been used to cook meth, then abandoned for several years, still showed extensive contamination after 5 years.

       For the study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, researchers looked at a house that had been contaminated by people cooking meth before the home was eventually sold to someone else and then left uninhabited for several years. They found that the meth residue was still around more than five years later.

       The study authors noted that the contamination levels in the house were “extremely high in both household items that were part of the house when cooking was taking place (blinds, carpets, walls, etc.) and also in articles brought to the house post-cooking (rugs, toys, beds, etc.).”

       The most contaminated item in the house? The blinds. “These are plastic blinds that were present when [drug] manufacture was suspected to have been undertaken,” said the study authors. “This is consistent with observations from other properties where higher levels of methamphetamine are present in materials such as PVC, polyurethane and stained and varnished timbers."

      The researchers noted that “the methamphetamine is not breaking down or being removed and is transferred from contaminated to non-contaminated objects.”

 (H/t KA9OFF)