Attendees at the Clean Up 2017 conference in Melbourne heard from Dr Jackie Wright and Miles Stratford in a joint presentation about the effects of living in a P house.
Headline in Herald Sun newspaper
Dr Jackie has been researching in this area for over 5 years (read our earlier interview with Dr Jackie Wright) and she explained her hair analysis test research.
“Using hair analysis Flinders University adjunct lecturer Dr Jackie Wright has found evidence of chemical intake in people who lived in homes previously used to make or consume ice.
In her presentation she will reveal the findings of hair tests completed on 10 police officers working in the drug squad in Western Australia to determine if the protective clothing they wore was adequate.
“With their consent I collected hair samples from them, these are guys who have day-to-day activities that involve seizing and processing different drugs and equipment,” Dr Wright said.
“The good thing is that we had ‘non-detect’ so it shows the procedures they have in place are effective and they are not getting environmental exposures from being involved in these activities.”
Video interview with Dr Jackie Wright is on the Herald Sun website
Video interview with Dr Jackie Wright how to spot a P house
Proving that protection suiting is fit for purpose has been encouraging. Dr Jackie also ran tests with residents who lived in homes before they discovered they were positive for P smoking and manufacture.
“A case study was a teenager who had reported respiratory issues at night, behavioural problems and difficulty sleeping while she was living in a property previously rented by drug users.
“She had detectable of methamphetamine in her hair,” Dr Wright said.
Her research has previously shown a six year old boy had the same levels of methamphetamine in his system as an adult drug abuser after his family unwittingly bought a house that had been used as an ice drug lab.”
Note: “ice” is the Australian term for methamphetamine – known as P in New Zealand.
