After lobbying by councils, new benchmark will address inconsistencies in removing meth toxins in houses

Decontaminating P houses is not a pleasant thing . . . so the more that can be standardised . . . the easier it is for everybody.

People paying tens of thousands of dollars to decontaminate properties where methamphetamine has been manufactured or used will soon have an assurance that the work meets an approved standard.

The Government has pledged money towards the work, after lobbying from organisations including Auckland Council.

Mervyn Chetty, the council’s manager for environmental health, said work to decontaminate properties varied in quality.

“Auckland Council has received feedback that contractors used by landowners to test and remediate affected properties vary considerably in the services they offer and the level of remediation they provide.

“The development of a New Zealand standard will provide a benchmark that all contractors will have to meet, as well as providing a standard that councils can reference to ensure consistency and to provide a level of certainty to homeowners that their properties are being remediated to a suitable level.”

Homes where methamphetamine is manufactured can become contaminated and pose health risks to occupants, with symptoms including rashes, nausea, fatigue and shortness of breath.

Estimating the size of the problem is difficult, but last year Housing NZ decontaminated 229 properties, and Meth Minder, a decontamination company, dealt with almost 500 con- taminated rentals, most of which were privately owned.

Mr Chetty said Auckland Council’s view was that the scale of the problem in terms of properties where meth had been manufactured was relatively low, but contamination of properties where meth was used was more prevalent.

Prime Minister John Key has announced that $64,000 will go towards the development of a standard for the remediation of properties with meth contamination.

Standards NZ will lead the work, and has already held workshops with decontamination companies, including discussions around methods of testing and remediation.

Auckland, Tauranga, Hutt City, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin councils have all been directly involved, alongside Local Government NZ and the police, in the push to develop a standard.

Local Government NZ president Lawrence Yule said the development of a common standard was good news for homeowners.

“Decontaminating P houses is not a pleasant thing — there are a lot of toxic chemicals. So the more that can be standardised . . . the easier it is for everybody.”

Mr Yule said the real problem was with houses where drugs had been cooked, not where they had been used, and it was a bigger issue than people realised.

“The councils, many of them, will have a database of where [contaminated houses] are, but actually I suspect we don’t have a full database — because many of them we would only know about if we have been advised by the police, or if somebody has complained, or if it is being sold and a potential purchaser looks at it and asks the question.”

Lawrence Yule, Local Government NZ president