AST April 2018 Magazine AST April Magazine (3.30.18) | Page 56

Volume 22
April 2018 Edition
Roughly 9,500 people died from overdoses involving syn- Bag and destroy grossly contaminated clothing.
thetic opioids other than methadone in 2015.”
Don’t use hand sanitizer. Upon return home or to the sta-
tion/base, shower with soap and water.
THREAT TO FIRST RESPONDERS
Fentanyl is commonly distributed as a powder and looks
similar to other illicit drugs found on the streets.
.
A person can overdose by simply touching or inhaling a
small amount, presenting an incredibly dangerous threat
to first responders, law enforcement officers, and even fo-
rensic chemists.
CHEMICAL IDENTIFICATION USING GC/MS
HAZMAT responders must perform quickly and with limit-
ed dexterity when wearing Personal Protective Equipment
(PPE).
In a clan-lab, responders are responsible for data collec-
tion, sampling, and in some cases, analysis that leads to
“An amount the size of a few grains of sand of fentanyl real-time decision-making.
can kill you,” said Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Special
A GC-MS can aid responders with decision-making
Agent John Martin.
by delivering quick identification of illicit drugs,
If fentanyl is suspected, the DEA recommends that synthetic analogues, and associated precursors.
law enforcement officers do not field test drugs.
On-scene confirmation gives responders the actionable
Hazardous Materials Response Teams (HMRTs) should be intelligence needed for timely law enforcement and reme-
called to assess suspected clandestine labs.
diation.
Be alert for signs and symptoms of exposure and
keep Naloxone injectors on hand.
Symptoms of exposure can include respiratory distress,
disorientation, clammy skin and pinpoint pupils.
(No time? No lab? No problem. Quickly and easily identify chem-
ical hazards in the field with the FLIR Griffin™ G510 portable gas
chromatograph mass spectrometer.)
On the street, heroin is commonly cut with fen-
tanyl.
(DEA sent out an urgent alert to first responders about the dan-
gers of the opiate fentanyl — sounding the alarm on the poten-
tially deadly occupational hazard.)
HAZMAT responders are likely to uncover both
drugs in a single unknown powder sample. 54