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Emergency responders on alert for deadly drug

Gene Troyan, administrator for Butler Ambulance Service, demonstrates the protective gear emergency responders wear when on a drug overdose call on Friday. Crews are taking precautions against contact with carfentanil, an extremely-potent opioid that can be absorbed through the skin or through inhalation.

Police and emergency responders in Butler County say they are taking precautions against contact with an extremely-potent opioid that has recently claimed two lives in the region.

Beaver County Coroner David Gabauer last week said that toxicology results for a man who died in mid-December revealed that he had carfentanil in his system. It was the second case of a Beaver County overdose victim having the drug in their system.

Carfentanil is a synthetic opioid 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more potent than fentanyl. It is used as a tranquilizer for elephants and other large mammals.

In September of last year, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency issued a safety alert notifying departments that heroin laced with the drug was being found in illicit drug markets around the country.

The presence of the drug could not only create an increase in overdose-related deaths, but it also poses a threat to first responders, medical personnel, laboratory personnel and the general public who may come into contact with it, according to the DEA alert.

Officers were advised to exercise extreme caution around any illicit drugs. Carfentanil can come in the form of a powder, blotter paper, spray, tablets and patches. It can be absorbed through the skin or through inhalation. Exposure to only 2 mg of powder — about the size of a grain of sand — could be lethal, according to the DEA.

Mark Peffer, chief deputy with the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, said the department first heard about carfentanil two years ago, but has been monitoring its spread more closely since it was reported in Ohio last year.

State police, municipal police, the county sheriff, the district attorney, the attorney general’s office and other agencies are constantly doing intelligence-sharing about drug activity and drug-related investigations, he said.

Police use field test kits to confirm that drugs seized during an arrest contain controlled substances. The only ways to confirm that carfentanil was being distributed in the county would be from an autopsy toxicology report or by sending a sample to a state police laboratory to be tested, he said.

Peffer said he hopes that drug users do not seek out these extremely-powerful opioids.

“It would be our sincere desire that those afflicted with addiction should realize that this truly is a poison they are putting into their body,” he said.

Members of the public who may come into contact with illicit drugs or any suspicious substances are advised to be extra cautious.

“They absolutely should not handle it in any way. They should call 911 and get somebody there in a controlled manner. Treat it like a poison,” Peffer said.

Gene Troyan, director of operations for Butler Ambulance Service, said the staff was given warnings and education about the drug several months ago after hearing news reports about it being found on the streets of Columbus, Ohio.

Troyan said there is no way to know what types of drugs are present at a crime scene or overdose call, but paramedics and EMTs are advised to wear gloves and be careful not to come into contact with any drugs at the scene.

“We take the universal precautions against all types of blood-borne pathogens or chemicals,” he said.

The amount of drug-overdose calls that the service responds to has been steadily increasing over the past couple of years, he said.

Recently, they have averaged about one drug overdose call per day in their coverage area, which includes the city of Butler, and the townships of Butler, Center and Penn.

Ted Fessides, deputy chief of administration for Cranberry Township EMS, said carfentanil is likely circulating in Butler County too.

“We heard about the cases in New Brighton and Beaver Falls. It would be naive to think that it’s not here,” he said.

Cranberry EMS and Harmony EMS, based in Jackson Township, both serve small portions of Beaver County.

Fessides said the department was copied on an alert sent out by Beaver County emergency services after the first fatal overdose. While wearing gloves is standard procedure, it would still be possible for a paramedic with exposed skin to come into contact with the drug. In light of some of the alerts, the department may start wearing masks too.

“We are considering ramping that up,” he said.

Opioid antidote Naloxone, which is legal for anyone in Pennsylvania to carry and administer, can be given every 2 to 3 minutes to anyone who has overdosed on powerful opioids like carfentanil.

Fentanyl, another powerful synthetic opioid, also poses dangers to anyone who may come into contact with it, officials say.

Fentanyl has already been found in the county and caused several overdose deaths last year.

Several drug dealers were already charged by police with drug delivery resulting in death after investigating those deaths.

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