Contaminated clandestine drug laboratories and public health

Illegal clandestine drug laboratories are also known as 'clan labs'. They are sites where chemicals were used to make illegal drugs. Contamination at these sites can present risks to human health and the environment.

Property owners are responsible for the clean up of contamination at a clan lab. Local government environmental health officers (EHOs) are expected to enforce these cleanups.

EPA's Clandestine laboratory remediation practice note provides relevant advice to those investigating and/or remediating a clan lab site. This includes:

owners of or agents for sites found to contain clan labs
EHOs required to enforce cleanup of sites so that potential site contamination doesn't pose a public health risk.