Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 80 – 100 times stronger than morphine. It was pharmaceutically developed for pain management in cancer patients, but due to its powerful opioid properties, the substance has been diverted for abuse. Sadly, there have been an alarming number of deaths from an overdose caused by the intake of fentanyl in recent times.
On this note, Safety Services Management, a fentanyl cleanup services company, has decided to raise awareness of the effect of fentanyl and why it is important to have the area properly cleaned where the drug may have been abused or produced. To this end, Safety Services Management has published an article to inform the general public about the dangers and hazards of fentanyl as they review two cases where people who handled illicit fentanyl lost their life.
In early April, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office in Southern California filed felony charges against two drug dealers in the largest bust in the county in 16 years. On March 17, Buena Vista police officers stopped the pair outside a home while driving away in a minivan. It was packed with 822 pounds of meth, 89.7 pounds of cocaine, and the biggest killer of them all, 20.5 pounds of illicit fentanyl pills destined to be sold as counterfeit opioids and likely cut into other illicit drugs like cocaine and meth.
The District Attorney estimated that given the lethal dose of fentanyl—about 2 milligrams—the haul had the potential to kill 4.7 million people. Urging caution, County District Attorney Todd Spitzer had this to say, “Fentanyl is cheap, easy to get, and it is killing our children, our coworkers, and tens of thousands of innocent Americans. Millions of unsuspecting people have the grim reaper looking over their shoulder, and they have no idea how close they are to dying from taking a single pill.”
But there’s even a deeper concern when dealing with fentanyl and that’s the contamination it may leave behind. Accidently inhaling or ingesting the powder can be fatal—innocent people who come into contact with a site where the drug was being used recreationally or in a makeshift lab where dealers crush, cut fentanyl into other illicit drugs and press pills. While deaths of fentanyl users increasingly make the headline news, rarely, if ever, are there the untold stories of those charged with decontaminating a property to make it fully safe and habitable.
In September 2021, the Drug Enforcement Administration weighed in on the fentanyl epidemic with a Public Safety Alert. “The United States is facing an unprecedented crisis of overdose deaths fueled by illegally manufactured fentanyl and methamphetamine,” says Anne Milgram, DEA administrator. “Counterfeit pills that contain these dangerous and extremely addictive drugs are more lethal and more accessible than ever before.”
At that point in time, more than 9.5 million counterfeit pills were seized in 2021—more than the past two years combined—with a dramatic rise in the pills packed with the lethal dose of 2 milligrams of fentanyl, according to the DEA. Two out of every five pills with fentanyl contain a potentially deadly dose—small enough to fit on the tip of a pencil.
Based on a recent analysis of Centers for Disease Control data, fentanyl has become the predominant killer for Americans ages 18 to 45. In the past two years, deaths from fentanyl have considerably exceeded deaths from COVID-19 for this age group.
Safety Services Management is one of the few companies qualified to provide illicit fentanyl contamination cleanups. The company continues to sound the alarm for the need to properly decontaminate areas with possible contamination from fentanyl.
For more information, please visit www.safetyservicesmanagement.com/press-kit.
About Safety Services Management
Safety Services Management is an American company specializing in fentanyl cleanups. It was founded by Jon Schibsted, a Hazmat Specialist and former hazmat firefighter specializing in emergency response to mitigate chemical releases, spills, radiological events, and weapons of mass destruction, including blister agents, nerve agents, biological, and nuclear.
Aside from fentanyl contamination cleanups, Safety Services Management offers illicit drug lab remediation, confined space rescue teams, confined space entry training, emergency preparedness programs for business and OSHA safety & compliance services.
For further inquiries, send an email to jenny@safetyservicesmanagement.com
Safety Services Management has written an article that can be used in publications. They article can be republished in its entirety, or edited as long as the integrity of the message is intact. Please, read full article at https://www.safetyservicesmanagement.com/press-kit
The article title is:
The Untold Story—The Ramifications of Fentanyl Beyond the Death of a User
By Dan Ouellette
Media Contact
Company Name: Safety Services Management, LLC
Contact Person: Jenny Schibsted
Email: Send Email
Phone: (714) 455-9832
Address:1370 Valley Vista Drive, Unit 200 Diamond Bar
City: Los Angeles
State: CA 91765
Country: United States
Website: https://www.safetyservicesmanagement.com/