The Iowa DEC Alliance is grateful to the group of medical practitioners, industrial hygienists, chemists, environmental specialists and researchers that comprise the National DEC Alliance's Medical, Scientific and Research Subcommittee. To these individuals a great deal is owed for their endless hours of hard work and collaboration in developing the National Medical Protocol for children found at Clandestine Lab sites or exposed to illicit drug use in their home.
The Iowa DEC Alliance has also developed a medical subcommittee to address issues involving the coordination of Iowa health care providers and medical services for drug endangered children. The subcommittee will take up a number of issues related to health impacts and appropriate medical response. The goal of this committee is to provide a more seamless medical response to DEC children. Medical Protocol
National DEC Alliance Approved Medical Protocol
Resources
- Ed Bottei, M.D.Health Hazards of a Clandestine Methamphetamine Laboratory Medical Director of the Iowa Statewide Poison Control Center, State Medical Toxicologist for the Iowa Department of Public Health, and Clinical Assistant Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at The University of Iowa.
- "In spite of all we do know about the potential effects of methamphetamine production on the community, there is still much that we dont know." Read Dr. John Martyny's Testimony before Congress regarding the need for research concerning specific exposure hazards associated with illegal methamphetamine manufacture. He testified, "If the exposures encountered in methamphetamine laboratories are not known, then it is difficult to properly educate personnel about the risks they may encounter when entering an illegal laboratory...Information regarding long-term effects in children is especially needed, since the knowledge of potential physiologic and psychological conditions resulting from these exposures in children may help in our treatment for these individuals."
