Meth tester slams ‘exploited’ criticism
A meth tester has slammed Housing Minister Phil Twyford’s comments that the industry ‘‘exploited’’ the lack of clear guidelines for meth contamination testing.
Yesterday Twyford apologised to those affected by the meth myth saga, saying the situation was ‘‘appalling’’ and the methamphetamine testing industry had ‘‘exploited the lack of clear guidelines that the National Government should have promised’’.
Residue Testing NZ director David Spalter said the industry had simply responded to standards set out by government departments and Housing New Zealand’s actions.
‘‘Housing NZ were throwing people out of homes, and I said for many years people were over-hyping it. Pulling out wall boards was ridiculous.’’
He said government departments did not hear industry warnings that the standards were too low.
Earlier this week a report from the Prime Minister’s chief science adviser, Sir Peter Gluckman, found there was no risk to humans from third-hand exposure in houses where meth had been consumed.
The report substantially raised the level at which a house is deemed safe. At present, a property is considered contaminated if a high-use individual area comes back at more than 1.5 micrograms per 100 square centimetres.
Another meth tester, Neville Pettersson, said many meth testers already knew the 1.5mcg standard was too low and was creating unnecessary panic.
‘‘The standard was quite low and was freaking people out, but the report now says those houses are all OK. But a lot of us knew they were OK anyway,’’ Pettersson said.
Spalter said the report suggesting people could stay in homes without experiencing adverse health effects encouraged meth users to smoke in their house.
‘‘In the short term the industry’s future looks glum, but long term it will be booming if you’re signalling people can smoke indoors and get away with it.’’
Spalter said Housing NZ skipped to the second stage of meth testing which was more expensive, rather than using a screening test as a presumptive first port of call.