UW partners with local transit agencies to study fentanyl smoke movement in public transportation

SEATTLE — A few of King County’s public transportation will likely be outfitted with detectors to check and higher perceive how fentanyl smoke strikes in a contained surroundings.

King County Metro and Sound Transit are among the many transit businesses collaborating in a College of Washington examine that may observe how drug smoke circulates towards transit drivers.

King County Metro says the transit businesses concerned within the examine are additionally working with regulation enforcement and different group companions to “extra successfully stop all substance use on transit.”

“Whereas drug incidents on Metro usually are not widespread, our purpose stays zero. When an incident does occur, not sufficient is thought about airflow and whether or not substances linger,” stated a King County Metro spokesperson in a weblog submit shared final week.

Marissa Baker, an assistant professor within the UW’s division of environmental and occupational well being sciences, referred to as the examine a first-of-its-kind examination of narcotics fumes inside transit automobiles.

“We’re wanting not solely at fentanyl but in addition different medicine which are generally used with fentanyl,” stated Baker. “We’re trying to see the way it strikes within the air, whether or not or not it reaches the operator and the way a lot reaches the operator, if it deposits and stays on surfaces, issues like that.”

Gadgets will likely be positioned on a number of Metro buses and Hyperlink gentle rail trains to evaluate airflow patterns on public transit.

The filters inside the gadgets will likely be changed regularly over a three-week span. The filters will then be analyzed for fentanyl, meth, heroin and oxycodone.

Researchers hope to report their findings in Might.

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