Cops say they're being poisoned by fentanyl. Experts say the risk is 'extremely low'

[GMDino]

Lots more at this link.

https://www.njspotlightnews.org/special-report/fentanyl-myth-police-cry-overdose-facts-prove-otherwise/

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Quote:[url=https://www.njspotlightnews.org/author/ian-t-shearn/]Ian T. Shearn, Contributing writer | May 9, 2023

The posting on the Camden County Prosecutor’s Facebook page on the evening of Jan. 12 served up a story tailor-made for the digital age: “11 LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS SUFFER FENTANYL EXPOSURE AFTER EXECUTION OF SEARCH WARRANTS”


“First and foremost, we are very thankful that all of the officers who were exposed to fentanyl have recovered, and they are all healthy and safe,” prosecutor Grace C. MacAulay wrote in a news release. “This is just one of the many dangers faced by the men and women of law enforcement.”


Enhancing the drama, the news release stated: “Hazardous Materials Teams from the Cherry Hill Fire Department, the Camden Fire Department and Camden County, responded to the scene to assess and address the situation to ensure that the apartment complex was free of any hazards and safe for the public.”


The very provincial story spread to other states, even finding its way to France and Germany.
Jan. 12, 2023: Collingswood firefighters were at the Creswood Apartments, where five people were arrested in a fentanyl bust and 11 police officers were treated for fentanyl exposure. (Matt Skoufalos; NJ Pen)


It was merely one of the most recent episodes in a steady stream of news reports and social media postings over the past six years that amplify the supposed grave dangers first responders face when encountering fentanyl. Law enforcement agencies have posted harrowing body-cam videos of officers collapsing from what police claimed were overdoses after brief, incidental exposure to small amounts of fentanyl.


The news reports and posts from law enforcement agencies have been challenged by an overwhelming consensus among toxicological medical experts who say it is fear, not science, that drives the narrative. They say there is very little danger in casual, limited exposure to fentanyl, and the misinformation is harming public health. Dr. Lewis S. Nelson, professor of emergency medicine and chief of the Division of Medical Toxicology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, is one of the experts leading the charge.


“The reality is very, very simple. It’s not possible to be in the location of this toxin and become ill,” he told NJ Spotlight News.


[color=var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-cyan-blue)]What happened in Collingswood[/color]
MacAulay declined a request for an interview and the prosecutor’s spokeswoman declined to answer any questions as well.
But MacAuley’s office did provide arrest reports for the Jan. 12 incident. An affidavit for probable cause spells out what police say they found.


“Defendant Ali Coles was located in the kitchen, attempting to destroy and discard fentanyl by dumping it down the kitchen sink,” the document reads. “As a result, large, powdery cloud spread throughout the apartment. The nearby dining room table and the floor under it were covered in a powder residue and packaging materials. Coles was also covered in a white residue. … Eleven police officers were transported from the scene to Medical Hospital for treatment related to symptoms consistent with fentanyl exposure, including coughing, difficulty breathing, elevated heart rates, and dizziness. Two of the officers were administered Narcan at the scene.” Narcan is a nasal spray containing naloxone, a drug used to combat the effects of an opioid overdose.



While the 11 officers were being treated at the scene in Collingswood and then transported to Cooper University Hospital in Camden, Coles and the four other defendants were taken directly into custody for processing. Coles, whose face was covered with fentanyl, was not injured, the police report said. All five were charged with drug-related offenses. But the next day, Coles was charged with four counts of aggravated assault because he was responsible for releasing fentanyl into the air with law enforcement officers present. Those charges alone expose Coles to a prison sentence of five to 10 years.
Coles’ attorney did not respond to a request for an interview.
Jan. 12, 2023: HAZMAT first responders at Creswood Apartments in Collingswood. (Matt Skoufalos; NJ Pen)
“Nearly every day, I read about one of these incidents on my news feed,” Nelson said, adding that his attempts to reach out to various law enforcement agencies have been roundly ignored, including by the Drug Enforcement Agency, the National Association of Chiefs of Police and various police “fusion centers,” where different agencies collaborate.  


“I can’t get anyone to take this seriously. It’s crazy. I feel like a pariah,” he said. “It’s been an uphill battle.”


There is no sinister motive in play, Nelson explains. It’s more of a matter of certain factions digging in and the news media reporting what they say without question. Officers seen in the videos are not faking it, he stresses. What’s happening in these so-called overdose incidents, he said, is a reasonable psychosomatic response to a false narrative that turned caution into mass hysteria. It is an assessment widely held in the scientific community.


“Cops are human beings. They are already under extreme stress,” Nelson said.


[color=var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-cyan-blue)]Psychological stress[/color]
In a 2018 article, Nelson elaborated on that point.
Dr. Lewis S. Nelson
“Psychological stress presenting as anxiety and, when taken as a whole, mass sociogenic illness, is most likely,” Nelson wrote. “This is often described as the nocebo effect in which the thought of an exposure causes the expected adverse effect, even if a substance is inactive. This is essentially the opposite of the more well-known placebo effect.”
This fentanyl exposure narrative dates to March 2015, when the DEA issued a nationwide alert about the dangers of the synthetic opioid, specifically noting that “New Jersey saw a huge spike in fentanyl deaths in 2014.” 


“Fentanyl is extremely dangerous to law enforcement and anyone else who may come into contact with it,” DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart said. “Fentanyl can be absorbed through the skin and accidental inhalation of airborne powder can also occur.”  


[color=var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-cyan-blue)]Atlantic County, 2015[/color]
That summer, two officers from the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office came upon a bag of white powder during a house search. That discovery would soon make them famous in law enforcement circles across America and beyond.


After returning to their office, detectives Dan Kallen and Eric Price conducted a field test. The test came up negative for cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Field-testing for fentanyl was not protocol in 2015. They decided to send the drugs to a lab for further testing; the powder in the bag turned out to be cocaine and heroin combined with fentanyl.

DR. LEWIS S. NELSON, RUTGERS NEW JERSEY MEDICAL SCHOOL Wrote:‘I understand the officer’s perspective and I agree that what he experienced was real to him.’

As he was closing the bag, he squeezed it to force the air out and “a very, very, very small amount … escaped in the air right in front of our faces,” Kallen, now a sergeant, recalled in an interview with NJ Spotlight News. “We waved our hands around, and said, ‘Wow, that was close.’ I went back to my office and sat down and immediately became woozy and light-headed. Detective Price took three steps and actually went down to the ground. … I felt like everything was shutting down, slowing down.”  


“As far as it being psychosomatic in my head, I don’t agree with that at all,” Kallen said. “We didn’t even know we had been exposed to fentanyl. …I can only speak to what happened to Detective Price and myself. … There’s no doubt in my mind that I had an extreme adverse effect from fentanyl.”


Asked about the incident, Nelson responded by saying he is not looking to confront law enforcement officers, question their sincerity or make them the issue.


“I understand the officer’s perspective and I agree that what he experienced was real to him,” Nelson wrote in an email. “This is what the nocebo effect/stress response looks like. The officer was justified in his concern and his response is typical of what we see in these situations.”


A year after the Atlantic County incident, fentanyl overdose deaths were skyrocketing across America. The DEA videotaped statements from the two New Jersey detectives. They were told it was for internal training purposes, Kallen said. Instead, it appeared on a June 2016 DEA “roll call” video, posted as an urgent alert to the nation’s law enforcement community.  


“Fentanyl can kill you,” acting DEA Deputy Administrator Jack Riley said on the video. “A very small amount ingested, or absorbed through your skin, can kill you.”


[color=var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-cyan-blue)]‘I thought I was dying’[/color]
“It hit us like a ton of bricks,” Kallen said on the video. “It became very difficult to breathe. Our hearts were racing. We were nauseous, close to blacking out. I felt like, ‘Holy crap, I’m going to die right now.’”  


“It felt like my body was shutting down,” his partner Price said. “I thought that was it. I thought I was dying.”


Requests for interviews with the New Jersey State Police and the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association went unanswered.

2020 study, International Journal of Drug Policy Wrote:‘Misinformation can also engender counterproductive policies, including hyper-punitive responses, unnecessary expenditures, and pharmaceutical over-regulation.’

That video caused the “first notable surge” of media coverage on the subject, making its way to at least 80 news stories around the country, according to a 2020 study published in the International Journal of Drug Policy. At a time when all kinds of misinformation were proliferating in America, the study provided a case study into how myths are made.


“Misinformed media reports received approximately 450,000 Facebook shares, potentially reaching nearly 70,000,000 users from 2015-2019,” the study said. “Amplified by erroneous government statements, misinformation received excess social media visibility by a factor of 15 compared to corrective content, which garnered fewer than 30,000 shares with potential reach of 4,600,000 Facebook users.”


[color=var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-cyan-blue)]‘Fentanyl panic’[/color]
It had become a matter, the study’s authors argued, that was far more than a harmless academic debate on ethical standards. There were serious public health concerns in play.


“Fentanyl panic has real-world consequences,” they said. “Professional responders and witnesses may delay overdose intervention to avoid perceived potential health risks to themselves. Inaccurate risk perception can contribute to unnecessary stress and other mental health issues. Misinformation can also engender counterproductive policies, including hyper-punitive responses, unnecessary expenditures, and pharmaceutical over-regulation.”


In May 2017, an incident in East Liverpool, Ohio went viral and sent the fentanyl narrative to a new level.

DR. DAVID TARANTINO, MEDICAL ADVISER, U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION Wrote:‘One myth is that just touching any amount of fentanyl is likely to cause severe illness or injury or even death.’

An officer there was said to have nearly died an hour after brushing some white powder off his shirt during a traffic stop. He said he felt “his body shutting down” and received four doses of naloxone before being “revived.”  


“This stuff is very dangerous. It takes just the slightest amount. Just like a little granule. Or it gets airborne, you inhale it. It could kill multiple people if it’s in the air,” Police Chief John Lane told CBS Pittsburgh.


[color=var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-cyan-blue)]Gone viral[/color]
That story generated 134,000 Facebook shares across 25 states with a potential reach of nearly 21 million views. The suspect in the case pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to 18 months. The officer was later fired from the police force in an unrelated matter.


Less than a month later, the DEA updated its 2016 roll call video with the two New Jersey detectives. with a similar video. This time, it was Acting DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg who issued the dire warning.

“Fentanyl is deadly,” Rosenberg says at the start of the video. “Exposure to amounts equivalent to a few grains of sand can kill you … It is extremely dangerous to users who simply come into contact with it. If you’re a first responder, that could be you. … Let me say this again: You can be in grave danger if you unintentionally come into contact with fentanyl.”
Rosenberg’s statement was then followed by the earlier interviews of the Atlantic County detectives.


The DEA did not respond to several emails requesting an interview to discuss the issue. Rosenberg, now working for a private law firm, declined a request for an interview and for a comment as to whether his assessment of the dangers of fentanyl exposure has changed. His video is no longer on the DEA website but remains on the U.S. Department of Justice site. The DOJ also did not respond.  


Just a few months later, the American College of Medical Toxicology and the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology disputed the DEA’s dire warnings with a joint 


Position Statement: Preventing Occupational Fentanyl and Fentanyl Analog Exposure to Emergency Responders. 


[color=var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-cyan-blue)]Scientific rebuttal[/color]
It was the first in a stream of scientific papers pushing back on the tone and volume of the alerts coming from law enforcement. Public safety and public health institutions were not seeing eye to eye. The report particularly discredited the expressed danger of absorption into the skin. Rutgers’ Nelson was one of the authors of the position paper.

Quote:[color=var(--wp--preset--color--white)]In January 2020, West Virginia legislators advanced a bill that would make ‘exposing’ law enforcement officers to illicit fentanyl a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.[/color]

“The risk of clinically significant exposure to emergency responders is extremely low,” they wrote. “To date, we have not seen reports of emergency responders developing signs or symptoms consistent with opioid toxicity from incidental contact with opioids. Incidental dermal absorption is unlikely to cause opioid toxicity.”


The study also emphasized that police officers in reported overdose incidents did not display critical symptoms of toxicity.


[color=var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-cyan-blue)]Federal officials row back[/color]
In August 2018, the Department of Justice began to moderate its warnings. It released a new fentanyl safety video for first responders produced by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency. They called it “Fentanyl: The Real Deal.”
It was a significant development; federal officials were refuting some of the misinformation that was still proliferating.
Jan. 12, 2023: HAZMAT teams at Creswood Apartments in Collingswood (Matt Skoufalos; NJ Pen)
“One myth is that just touching any amount of fentanyl is likely to cause severe illness or injury or even death,” said Dr. David Tarantino, the customs agency’s senior medical adviser. “It’s just not true.”


A sense of reason appeared to be making its way into the discourse since the provocative DEA videos were posted.
“I’m glad DEA walked back its initial response when they were saying one or two micrograms can kill you,” Kallen said. Still in the narcotics unit, he says he handles his searches and seizures with “a healthy dose of respect.”


But the DOJ video didn’t take hold. The reports of police overdose incidents kept coming, largely unchallenged by news reporters and flourishing in the ecosystem of social media. 


“Despite newer guidance that urge a more rational approach to the risks of passive fentanyl exposure,” Nelson wrote a month later, “apprehension continues to grow with each alleged passive fentanyl poisoning event.”
Soon that apprehension about fentanyl exposure would made its way to the political realm.


In January 2020, West Virginia legislators advanced a bill that would make “exposing” law enforcement officers to illicit fentanyl a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.  


[color=var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-cyan-blue)]The Nashville dollar bill[/color]
Two years later, a story went viral about how a woman in Nashville collapsed after picking a dollar bill off the ground at a McDonalds, supposedly after incidental fentanyl exposure from the dollar bill. Metro Nashville police didn’t test the bill; they took it instead to the property room to be destroyed.


“Simply stated, poisoning in this manner is not possible,” Rutgers’ Nelson said about the Nashville story in an email to a news reporter at the time. In an article for the STAT website, Nelson noted that pharmacists, surgeons and emergency physicians, among others, work with fentanyl because it’s commonly used as a pain medication but have not reported effects from passive exposure to fentanyl. Also, emergency workers are commonly exposed to fentanyl while working with overdose patients. “None of these exposure scenarios has been accompanied by worrisome clinical effects,” Nelson wrote.
That didn’t stop then U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy from repeating the story during an appearance on Fox News and assigning blame to President Joe Biden. “Fentanyl was on that dollar bill. This is how deadly this is. And we’re going to hold this administration accountable.”

Dr. Ryan Marino, medical toxicologist, Case Western Reserve University Wrote:‘You cannot overdose from secondhand contact.’

In September 2020 a group of medical experts published an analysis of the misinformation still being perpetuated in mainstream and social media. It was entitled “Fentanyl panic goes viral.”


“Fueled by misinformation, fentanyl panic has harmed public health through complicating overdose rescue while rationalizing hyper-punitive criminal laws, wasteful expenditures, and proposals to curtail vital access to pain pharmacotherapy,” the experts wrote.


“Relevant content appeared in 551 news articles spanning 48 states. Misinformed media reports received approximately 450,000 Facebook shares, potentially reaching nearly 70,000,000 users from 2015-2019. Amplified by erroneous government statements, misinformation received excess social media visibility by a factor of 15 compared to corrective content, which garnered fewer than 30,000 shares with potential reach of 4,600,000 Facebook users.”


[color=var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-cyan-blue)]A collapse in San Diego[/color]
On July 3, 2021 San Diego Deputy Sheriff David Faiivae field-tested three bags of suspected narcotics he had discovered during a search of a suspect’s car. When the results came back positive for fentanyl, his superior officer told him to double-bag the evidence and instructed him not to get so close to the evidence. Seconds later, Faiivae collapsed.
July 3, 2021: In this image taken from police body-camera video, San Diego County Sheriff’s Deputy David Faiivae gets aid from an officer, after being exposed to fentanyl. (San Diego County Sheriff’s Department)
The superior officer administered four doses of Narcan, the opioid antidote. Faiivae showed no reaction to the Narcan and was taken to a hospital by emergency medical workers. He recovered.


A month later, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department posted a “public safety video,” which showed body-cam footage of the deputy collapsing. “Being exposed to just a few, small grains of fentanyl could have deadly consequences,” Sheriff Bill Gore said in the video, echoing the DEA’s roll call message. The posting was met with strong resistance from the medical community.


“This video is misinformation, and nobody should believe what’s in this video,” said Dr. Ryan Marino, a medical toxicologist with Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. “You cannot overdose from secondhand contact.”
 Sheriff Gore said he was “shocked” by the reaction.

DR. LEWIS S. NELSON, RUTGERS NEW JERSEY MEDICAL SCHOOL Wrote:‘If this drug was as dangerous as they say it is, every cop in America would be dead, every user would be dead.’

In an interview with the San Diego Union Tribune, Gore admitted he had no blood test reports to confirm the deputy had suffered an overdose.


“Gore said he, not a doctor, concluded that Deputy David Faiivae suffered an overdose from incidental contact with fentanyl in the July 3 incident featured in the video,” the newspaper reported.


“I’m sorry, my mind didn’t go to, oh our deputy fainted, our deputy had a panic attack. It just didn’t go there. What was the other logical explanation — to my mind it was an overdose from the drug, from fentanyl,” the Union Tribune quoted Gore as saying. 


The San Diego Sheriff’s Department did not respond to a request for an interview.


[color=var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-cyan-blue)]Rutgers professor persists[/color]
Rutgers’ Nelson followed the case closely. He participated in a panel with local law enforcement officers from San Diego and medical experts to find common ground. “If this drug was as dangerous as they say it is, every cop in America would be dead, every user would be dead” Nelson told NJ Spotlight News.


“These media stories remain largely uncorrected, even when subsequent evidence emerges that the officers described were not affected by opioids,” wrote the authors of a paper published in the National Library of Medicine in September 2021. “It is important to note that what the law enforcement officers featured in these media stories are describing is very real and alarming, but that the symptoms that are often described are not related to opioid toxicity.”


The misinformation persists, Nelson says, because there is no data to analyze. Hospitals don’t test for fentanyl when first responders and others are treated for suspected overdose, a practice that could bring scientific fact to the fore.


Nelson thinks there are two ways to come to a solution. One is working with law enforcement and other interested parties to get first responders tested within two to three days of exposure. Or, even better, conduct a clinical study, which exposes human volunteers to various levels of exposure to fentanyl.


And that is where Dr. Nelson and Sgt. Kallen find common ground.


“A hundred percent,” Kallen says. “They should test. This could very easily be resolved … one way or the other.”