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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A state-funded study of links between exposure to illegal drug labs and the health problems of public safety officers is in jeopardy of ending without collecting enough data.
Officials say that as of April, just 38 of 144 Utah law enforcement agencies had completed study surveys. More agencies need to participate for the study to be viable, said Susan Black Dunn, a local attorney who represents former narcotics officers suffering from serious health problems.
"We can't get the study completed without a lot of participation," she said. "It's really critical for these different agencies to participate." The two-year study is being conducted by the Rocky Mountain Center for Occupation and Environmental Health at the University of Utah. It was funded in 2006 by state lawmakers.
Researchers want to determine whether exposure to chemicals used in meth labs is killing officers or causing them severe health problems.
The deadline for data collection is October.
Some agencies say they have been unfairly tapped as non-participants. An online survey allows officers to submit information anonymously and that may be leading to some confusion.
"We believe and are quite confident we have participated," said Ken Wallentine with the Utah Attorney General's Office, one of the agencies on the list of those not yet participating.
Most officers don't dispute a connection between exposure and illness. In 2006, a 37-year-old Utah County sheriff's detective who busted more than 150 meth labs died from liver cancer. Two officers from separate Salt Lake valley agencies also died from cancer. Both had been exposed to methamphetamine labs.
"Police officers are dying to prove that (drug) labs kill," retired West Valley City officer Charles Illsley said. "The bottom line is yesterday's lab cop is today's lab rat."
An undercover narcotics officer and a forensics expert, Illsley was among the first generation of Utah investigators to discover meth labs. Twenty years ago, police went into labs with no protective gear, leaving them exposed to toxic chemicals in the air and on glassware used to produce the drug, he said.
"The number one issue as health benefits and compensation for first responders goes is the lack of a cause-link between the lab and the health problem," said Illsley, who has suffered severe illnesses. "So the quicker the agencies provide supporting data, the sooner that link can be established."
Information from: Deseret News
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
