There is So Much Fentanyl Use at Supportive Housing Facilities in British Columbia That "Second-Hand Fentanyl" Has Become a Legitimate Concern
CTV News – The presence of second-hand fentanyl smoke is so severe at some British Columbia supportive housing facilities that workers cannot escape “substantial exposure,” even if they stay in their offices and don’t venture into hallways or tenants’ rooms.
That is the among the findings of tests conducted at 14 British Columbia supportive housing facilities, results that contributed to the province’s decision to form a working group aimed at tackling safety issues — including second-hand fentanyl exposure.
The assessments, conducted by Sauve Safety Services for BC Housing, tested facilities in Vancouver and Victoria and found elevated levels of airborne fentanyl even in the main offices of all three buildings tested in Vancouver.
Well that's one way to draw traffic to your non-profit supportive housing facilities. If you think people addicted to opiates who are experiencing withdrawal and have no money for a fix aren't going to make a beeline to BC Housing to take some big ol' breaths... then I've got some "pure uncut heroin" to sell you.
Ok that's a bit hyperbolic. But the concept of second-hand Fentanyl is crazy. For one, it seems like such a waste of the drug. The drug addicts I've known would be disgusted to hear how much perfectly good drugs are being wasted on the air. I guess if the room is primarily full of people who are using the Fentanyl (with the exception of the employees who are unwillingly ingesting it every day), then I guess the drug air is mostly just going back into the bodies of the people who the drugs were intended for. But still... what they should really be doing after inhaling their smoke is taking a... never mind.
My point is, the fact there's enough Fentanyl use in a confined space to make breathing in second-hand Fentanyl a real concern... I just didn't think that was possible.
Obviously it made sense for cigarettes. There was a point in time where cigarettes were more popular than water (probably). It makes sense with marijuana. You can burn a lot of weed in a single setting. People will sit there and burn through a sandwich bag packed full of weed in one afternoon. Even a single joint contains a good amount of burnable substance. Relatively speaking, the amount of weed needed to get a person high is exponentially greater than the amount of Fentanyl. We've all seen the picture of a lethal dose next to a penny.
That's maybe a little misleading, because oftentimes the drug is cut with other high-inducing drugs. So people are smoking more than just that tiny amount. I've been told that actual heroin does still exist in some places. But heroin compared to weed. Even heroin compared to cocaine. It's takes such a minuscule amount to completely put someone on their ass. The thought of there being enough of it that these supportive housing employees have been told to wear respiratory masks when walking the halls at work…
It recommended that all three Vancouver facilities improve ventilation to the main office, as well as mandating workers to wear respiratory protection in some cases and strengthening smoking policy enforcement for tenants.
In its assessment of the Osborn facility on West Hastings Street, testers found occupational fentanyl exposures over a 12-hour shift that “grossly exceeded applicable regulatory limits,” including WorkSafeBC’s limits.
“This trend held true across all sampled work activities, including time spent in the main office, working in the kitchen, cleaning shelter areas, and performing general duties on the shelter floor,” the report said.
“At the time of assessment, none of the mental health workers were observed wearing respiratory protection.”
I knew there was a lot of Fentanyl on the streets, but I didn't think smoking the drug had become be so prevalent that there would be significant, testable amounts of it in the air. I shudder to think what the air quality in an abandoned house on Philadelphia's Kensington Ave would test at.
Note: Speaking of Kensington. I just watched Long Bright River on Peacock. I thought it was a good, captivating show. A solid whodunit type of murder(s) investigation. But boy does it not do whatever Philadelphia police district is in charge of that area any favors. I'm sure they've got problems. I'm sure they've got some bad apples who've done some very not chill things. Obviously the system is fucked. And no spoilers… but if I were a police officer on Kensington trying my best, and I watched that show, I'd very much be like, "What the hell guys? We're not all fucking monsters. Could you at least have used a fake police department that was only based off of us? You had to put us on blast like that?"… pretty entertaining show though.
I should say, when it comes to this study on Fentanyl in the air, there are people who tend to believe it's being overblown a bit.
Dr. Ryan Marino, a medical toxicologist with University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, is an expert on addiction medicine and the medical toxicology of opioids such as fentanyl.
He said that while he had not seen the specifics of the assessments, the main risk from fentanyl smoke is “breakdown products” that result when the substance is burned, which can be directly noxious or toxic to a person’s airway surfaces.
“It’s actually very similar to smog pollution and can give people pretty significant irritation, coughing,” Marino said. “(It) could exacerbate asthma symptoms, that kind of thing. And so that is a very real concern, I would say.”
However, he cautioned against overreacting to the threat of absorbing fentanyl or fluorofentanyl through the air, since the opioid does not suspend in an airborne fashion and any particles in the air must be carried through wind or physical motion.
“It would take a lot of physical powder to be in the air for someone to inhale a significant amount,” Marino said.
“For someone who’s not using drugs, not ingesting anything in any way, the risk of a second-hand exposure, toxicity, overdose, whatever you want to call it, from fentanyl is pretty close to zero.”
So these employees aren't necessarily all walking around with Fentanyl addictions. At least not addictions brought on solely by second-hand smoke. But Fentanyl is such a scary thing. Almost anybody from small midwest town, at least people in the area I grew up, knows at least someone who's died from it. With all the new research we have about opiate addiction, and all the new laws that keep drugs like Oxycontin and other prescription painkillers off the streets, it's kind of ironic how the biggest problem drug now is one that's SO MUCH deadlier than all of those prescription pills combined. And for whatever reason, it doesn't seem to be going away.