Hard News by Russell Brown

Russell, you might want to talk to RNZ reporter Laura Bootham who's looked into the issue of meth contamination testing in-depth. She did a series on dodgy practices at one particular testing company which seem to have disappeared from RNZ's website (not sure why)

...the feckless and and often nonsensical stories about "meth houses" and contamination...News stories end up full of wild and contradictory claims and property owners are relieved of yet more money.

Thanks for calling bullshit on this. The way it's been building, the Herald will soon be claiming that these mostly pointless meth exorcisms will be a bigger driver of the economy than the Chch rebuild.

Last night's show is on-demand here.

And there's also an interesting online-only Q&A session with all the panelists answering questions from Toi and me, and from the audience.

An industry specialist says 40 per cent of homes he tests contain traces of methamphetamine, known as P.

Wow, I had no idea that upwards of a million NZers are involved in the production of P. That really is a crisis. Or bullshit. Hmmmmm.

The way it’s been building, the Herald will soon be claiming that these mostly pointless meth exorcisms will be a bigger driver of the economy than the Chch rebuild.

But are they bigger than the burglary epidemic?

But are they bigger than the burglary epidemic?

All part of the good old broken window fallacy.

Wow, I had no idea that upwards of a million NZers are involved in the production of P. That really is a crisis. Or bullshit. Hmmmmm.

The best one was the crazy extrapolation on the Meth Solutions website that suggested hundreds of thousands of properties used as meth labs.

Or, several meth labs for every user. You'd think the bloody price would come down.

I've often wondered about these meth testing and cleaning companies.

Those who watch this stuff will remember the storyline in Breaking Bad about a fumigation company that our heroes used as a cover for their meth lab operations. Well, what kind of companies also get to seal buildings and go in wearing protective clothing? Plus, the houses are already contaminated, obfuscating the evidence.

Just a plot suggestion, your honour..

I’ve often wondered about these meth testing and cleaning companies.

One also wonders if the tests may be finding something else that might trigger a positive result, and at what proportions?
What other evidence needs to be presented before the expensive 'cleansing process' kicks in?
Who benefits?
...and who do they know, or inform?

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/300181/meth-tests-now-'standard'-property-manager

there only seem to be very loose 'guidelines' and paranoia - some of it laid out here:
http://www.methsolutions.co.nz/what-is-a-safe-level-of-meth/

I'd be more worried about other normal household chemical spills, diesel and black mould in a house - I suspect a good airing and wipe down would more than likely do the job - heck if it's okay for the government to leave sequestered asbestos in houses in Chchch without noting it on the LIM, anything goes, right?

One also wonders if the tests may be finding something else that might trigger a positive result, and at what proportions?

Possible in the case of lead.

But it’s more that the crude tests most of them use in the first instance aren’t actually capable of telling whether the MoH standard has been exceeded. And they’re certainly not telling property owners what the toxicologists told the Science Media Centre – that traces of methamphetamine itself are extremely unlikely to have any negative heath effects, or any psychoactive effect.

It was kind of amazing that the Newshub report on Saturday about the couple spending tens of thousands having their house stripped out didn’t say who told them they had to do that. To be fair, there was evidence their garage had been used for a lab.

Lead? Mercury maybe? And there’d be a detectable quantity of that in most houses – somebody will have broken a fluorescent tube at some stage. Maybe they just check for “chemicals” – bound to be some of those around.

(In fact, there are a whole lot of nasties that weren’t recognised when widely used.

Leaded paint, obviously.

Tetrachloromethane was a popular spot remover until the 70s, with a caveat that you shouldn't smoke while using it as the cigarette would oxidise the CCl4 to phosgene.

Not to mention pesticides.

Even good old petrol is 1% benzene, which has been known as a toxic carcinogen for a long time – so if the bikies who lived in the house rebuilt motorbikes in the living room, as is traditional, they probably caused more serious contamination than smoking P).