Inspectors can offer meth and other drug manufacturing tests without a lab...

[Nick Gromicko]

http://www.nachi.tv/episode46

[dcook1]

WE need something like this available in Canada.... shipping by courier every order would be too costly.

Got a distributor up here?

[Nick Gromicko]

Yes, you. Congrats.

[Mario A. Kyriacou, CHI]

Nick,

Can you bring some test kits with you to Toronto?

[Frank M. Carrio, CMI]

Originally Posted by mkyriacou

Nick,

Can you bring some test kits with you to Toronto?

Nick,
Want to "Spread the Word"?

How about sending 1/2 dozen to each chapter so that they can pass them out as "Door Prizes"?

[David P. Valley]

I use a similar on-site drug testing. It's called DRUGWIPE.

http://www.masscertifiedhomeinspections.com/?D=127

[Charles R. N. Crooker]

Originally Posted by dvalley

I use a similar on-site drug testing. It's called DRUGWIPE.

http://www.masscertifiedhomeinspections.com/?D=127

So have you found any drug abused homes/buildnigs with them yet, and do you use it on every inspection and if so hwat is the cost per??

[Frank M. Carrio, CMI]

Originally Posted by dvalley

I use a similar on-site drug testing. It's called DRUGWIPE.

http://www.masscertifiedhomeinspections.com/?D=127

David,
You have just provided some really good information. I went on their web site but I could not find a "price list".

Can you tell us what you pay for kits?

[dcook1]

Originally Posted by gromicko

Yes, you. Congrats.

Absolutley!

[William R. DeVries, CMHI]

id be interested in getting a few of these kits as well

[Erich Kelter]

Pretty neat. I don't think we quite have the meth problem here (yet) in this part of Canada but we have our fair share of pot growers, don't we Dave??

[ckolbe]

Very interesting. So what happens when we test a house for drugs, the test comes back negative, the deal falls through as a result, we get sued and while that is happening, we are asked what formal training in drug analysis we have... ??? Hmmm.... I'll pass.

Under the Municipal Act of Ontario when a house is deemed to be a drug lab/pot house/whatever the local building department is notified. The Municipality then follows it's procedures for dealing with these places which usually results in orders being sent out and having several air analyses being conducted followed by whatever remedial work is required.

Once the house is deemed to be safe, the house is then permitted to be occupied - if the house beyond repair, it is to be demolished. That's what happens with labs.

I don't think the test kits are going to be of use, unless you want to test if the owners kids are smoking up in their rooms.

[Nick Gromicko]

Uh, aren't you forgetting something?

You wrote

if the house beyond repair, it is to be demolished.

And since your local building department doesn't offer drug testing on every home that is purchased... who will? How do they get "notified?" Someone has to test. How will the consumer be protected from either the residue or the home being demolished if no one offers the testing service? Some things we are cut out for as inspectors. Taking a simple sample to test for meth is certainly one of them.

You should at least tell all your clients about meth and tell them to call one of your competing InterNACHI members to do the test if you won't. It's only right that you do.

[James H. Bushart]

Originally Posted by gromicko

Uh, aren't you forgetting something?

You wrote

And since your local building department doesn't offer drug testing on every home that is purchased... who will? How do they get "notified?" Someone has to test. How will the consumer be protected from either the residue or the home being demolished if no one offers the testing service? Some things we are cut out for as inspectors. Taking a simple sample to test for meth is certainly one of them.

You should at least tell all your clients about meth and tell them to call one of your competing InterNACHI members to do the test if you won't. It's only right that you do.

Are you suggesting that someone go through the house with one of these test kits and, if obtaining negative results, declare the house safe and clear of any contamination?

It's one thing to miss a leaking water heater and have to replace it. It's another for a crawling infant to find a chemical spill buried in a shag carpet he is playing on and dying from being poisoned in a house that I have previously cleared with my junior detective kit.

[Nick Gromicko]

My thinking, and I don't know for sure so you should probably ask Kris, is that with any test, even this very accurate one that has far less detector custody issues than a lab test, an inspector will never be able to, as you put it "clear a home of contamination." However, I think that this test being performed by an InterNACHI member would be quite appropriate to find evidence of a former drug manufacturing operation. In other words, I think it will help find problems, but not all of them. And that is all we really do as inspectors anyway. We find leaks, we never deem a home to be leak free. We find problems, we never deem a home to be problem free.

P.S. Remember, meth residue doesn't diminish over time.