I think real estate professionals need to know more about cooking. Cooking is not something you might think about in terms of risky business. Not even to a firefighter. Not many days go by in the life of a firefighter when one can say that a response to an emergency situation at any given time is not risky business. But cooking? The exception, perhaps, might be when putting out a fire in a kitchen started accidentally by a distracted homeowner. In fact, however, one of the more risky responses that a firefighter can be exposed to is where cooking has or is occurring. So if a high risk event for a firefighter is a cooking situation, it must be something that a real estate professional needs to be concerned about.
Think about this. Cooking done covertly using a combination of apparatus and common household products can produce the drug of choice commonly known as Methamphetamine. We REALTORS® are usually not aware of what these common household products are or what the apparatus looks like. This illicit operation is conducted by, many times, amateur cooks, who have no idea how dangerous this illicit operation is. The by product is a highly dangerous gas called phosphine. One breath is debilitating and in many cases fatal. How many times do we find ourselves in a stranger's home? How would we know if the home, the car parked out back or the tool shed is or was being used to produce this dangerous substance?
Picture this, a REALTOR®, with a client walks into a vacant home. A garbage bag in the corner of the kitchen is noticed by the client. It looks unusually placed but the client, thinking it's a garbage bag full of "garbage" unties it to dispose of a used Kleenex tissue. Suddenly the client drops to the floor. The realtor, shocked at the outcome rushes to the client's side and falls immediately to the floor as well.. Upon opening the bag, the phosphine gas escaped rapidly exposing both REALTOR®, and client to a dose of the gas. Garbage bags are one of many methods used by cookers to remove the gas from the process and discard it. It could have very well been placed in the kitchen after the vacant home was used to produce the drug or the home can be an active lab.
Meth labs are springing up in every kind of neighborhood - rural and urban in every state. The increase in production is staggering. This means the potential danger to someone like you or I can be dangerous as well.
Most illicit lab activities are discovered by emergency personnel responding to the scene of someone having a physical problem or to a fire or explosion as a result of manufacturing or production of the drug. We as real estate professionals may not have the same risk but there is still the possibility of exposure. Education on what to look for and the dangers involved may be useful to us and our client(s). Knowing when and what to report would also be useful. Meth labs are poisonous and explosive and endanger not only emergency responders but all of us.
I'm working with local law enforcement, fire personnel and public affairs to create a short presentation to educate realtors. Is this something you think may be useful? I'd be interested in your input.
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