Traces of meth, fentanyl exposure common on Puget Sound buses

EVERETT — A new study found fentanyl and methamphetamine are widely present on public transit in trace amounts, but “not necessarily” at a level that poses a health risk to the public, University of Washington researchers said Thursday.

Five transit agencies — Everett Transit, Sound Transit, Community Transit, King County Metro and TriMet — sponsored the first-of-its-kind study where researchers assessed the drug levels of air and surface samples from 11 buses and 19 train cars. Researchers sampled vehicles when riders most likely used drugs, based on past incident reports.

Of 78 air samples, researchers detected fentanyl in 20 samples and detected methamphetamine in all samples. And of 102 surface samples, researchers detected fentanyl in about half, and detected methamphetamine in nearly all samples.

“Just because we can measure it in the lab, does not necessarily mean that it’s at a level that poses a health risk to operators or riders,” Marissa Baker, who worked on the study as an occupational health researcher, told reporters Thursday. “There isn’t a lot of research as to what levels may cause health effects and after how much time, but at the level seen in this study, there is no clinical evidence of acute medical condition that would result from these passive exposures.”

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