Province working on rules for fentanyl cleanups

Guidelines focus on homes, buildings, vehicles, places where drugs consumed

EDMONTON Alberta is leading the charge in Canada to develop guidelines that will help protect those cleaning sites contaminated by fentanyl, health officials said Friday.

The province has set aside up to $350,000 to develop a set of guidelines to safely clean homes that have been turned into drug labs

The push for the document was one of several recommendations made by the Health Minister’s Opioid Emergency Response Commission that was released in July, acting deputy chief medical officer of health Deena Hinshaw said.

“Right now each organization or individual that is cleaning up a fentanyl contaminated site would be reviewing evidence and coming up with their own process for dealing with that,” she said.

Health officials said that “existing guidelines for handling marijuana grow operations or methamphetamine-contaminated properties are insightful but inadequate.”

The current practice means each company has to do its own research “which is a fairly significant burden for them and creates different approaches,” she said.

That has led to inconsistent outcomes, she said.

“Alberta is the only jurisdiction that we are aware of that is working on these guidelines,” she said.

Hinshaw said other provinces are aware of Alberta Health’s work on the guidelines “and we will be happy to share the results.”

“I think this shows that we are committed to making sure that all aspects of the opioid crisis are addressed and it really demonstrates leadership in this field.”

The guidelines will not only focus on homes but on other buildings where drugs are stored or processed and will also focus on places where drugs are consumed and vehicles.

Brent Olynyk, owner of Trauma Scene Bioservices, a company that specializes in fentanyl cleanups, welcomes the move.

“Guidelines are exactly what we need,” he said adding that most people still have no idea how deadly the drug truly is.

Case in point is a home that his company is currently cleaning.

The owners of the home went on holidays and hired a contractor to do work on the house. That contractor hired another contractor who in turn hired some workers from Kijiji, he said. It is believed it was those workers who were using drugs at the house.

When the family returned home their four-year-old daughter fell ill and was rushed to hospital with mysterious symptoms that turned out to be related to fentanyl or carfentanil, an even more deadly opioid.

Now his company has been working on the home for two weeks and the family has been living in a hotel, he said.

Olynyk said his company has worked with Alberta Health to develop its own procedures that includes using an ion scanner to detect the drug and its derivatives and using an “encapsulating solution” to help trap and remove the substance.

I think this shows that we are committed to making sure that all aspects of the opioid crisis are addressed.

That solution costs about $800 per gallon. On average his company would deal with about 30 sites per year not including vehicles, he said.

A request for proposals for the development of the guidelines closes Sept. 5. There is no timeline on how quickly those new rules will be implemented.