Seattle bus drivers getting sick from fentanyl smoke on city buses amid drug, homelessness crisis: report

A Seattle bus driver says unlawful drug use has turn out to be so rampant within the metropolis that bus drivers are getting bodily unwell from fentanyl smoke on buses.

“I actually hadn’t ever heard of fentanyl smoking on the bus once I was employed by Metro,” Stevon Williams, a bus driver for King County Metro, instructed KOMO Information this week. “I don’t need to be put in a predicament the place I’m round medicine on daily basis on my job. I didn’t join that.”

Williams instructed the outlet he’s on go away from work whereas he undergoes medical testing for the adverse results from smoke on the bus.

“You’ve gotten people who find themselves on there smoking proper beside passengers, proper beside moms with little youngsters. It’s for the drug customers, they’re regarded out for first,” Williams added.

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KOMO Information reported that there have been 1,885 reviews of drug use on King County buses final yr, and 52 transit operators reported they have been uncovered to drug smoke. Sixteen of these filed employees compensation claims.

“I simply know after we’re sick, we needs to be checked and listened to,” Williams stated.

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Some King County officers have publicly downplayed the hazard of fentanyl smoke, together with Dr. Scott Phillips, the medical director of the Washington Poison Middle, who wrote in a weblog submit final yr that there’s “no actual danger.”

“When somebody smokes fentanyl, a lot of the drug has been filtered out by the person earlier than there’s secondhand smoke. It does not simply kind of float round … there is no actual danger for the on a regular basis individual being uncovered to secondhand opioid smoke,” Phillips wrote.

Law enforcement officials test on a person who stated he has been smoking fentanyl in downtown Seattle March 14, 2022.  (John Moore/Getty Photos)

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The King County Public Well being Division didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from Fox Information Digital. 

“Metro is enhancing security for each staff and prospects. Drug use is prohibited on transit, and we’re doubling our transit safety employees to 140 officers with council help. We’ve added a second safety contractor to help our efforts countywide. These employees members are key to addressing reviews from operators and prospects and cut back incidents on buses and at transit areas,” a King County Metro spokesperson instructed KOMO Information.

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King County declared a public well being emergency in response to the speedy unfold of fentanyl deaths in 2022 when 708 folks overdosed on the artificial drug.

Across the similar time, homelessness in Seattle and King County rose roughly 13.8% from 2020 to 2022, in accordance with the U.S. Division of Housing and City Improvement’s yearly homelessness evaluation.