ENGLEWOOD, Colo. –
For the second time in a month, a Colorado library has closed its doors to clean up meth contamination.
Officials in the Denver suburb of Englewood closed the city library last week within hours of receiving test results Wednesday showing contamination in the facility’s restrooms exceeded state thresholds, city spokesman Chris Hargut said.
Other spaces such as countertops also tested positive for lower levels of the drug and will require specialized cleaning, he said. More extensive remedial work will involve removal of contaminated surfaces, walls, piping and ventilation equipment.
The city of about 33,000 south of Denver decided to test for the drug after officials in the nearby college town of Boulder closed its main library after finding contamination with methamphetamine, Hargut said.
It’s the latest example of the balancing act city libraries must navigate between making their facilities welcoming to all while keeping them clean and safe. When a rash of overdoses in libraries was reported in mid-2010 as the opioid crisis grew in the United States, some libraries were stocked with the antidote naloxone, known by the brand name Narcan.
For now, meth contamination-induced library closings appear to be limited to Colorado, according to spokesman Raymond Garcia of the American Library Association, who is not aware of any elsewhere in the country in recent years. The group declined to comment on whether drug use is increasing in libraries, citing a lack of up-to-date data.
Health officials say methamphetamine residue can be irritating, causing symptoms such as an itchy throat, runny nose and bloodshot eyes. But secondary exposure is not thought to cause long-term, chronic health problems, Hargut said.
Drug use is not common at the Englewood library, but reports of it have increased in recent months as colder weather has led more people to seek shelter there, with only a small number using, library director Christina Underhill said. . More broadly, the library has attracted more homeless people since it fully reopened after closing at the start of the pandemic.
“We’re very responsive,” Underhill said. But “there are some people who abuse that space and unfortunately put us in that position.”
Brenda Folsom, who was picking up her grandchildren from school near the Englewood library Thursday, said she’s noticed an increase in drug use in the area over the past two years, especially at the local park. She worries that her 3- and 8-year-old grandsons, who go to the library with their father, and other curious children might pick up needles and other drug paraphernalia in the bathrooms.
“I think if they cleaned their restrooms a little bit more or paid attention to the restrooms and stuff or the people that go in there, they wouldn’t have this problem,” Folsom said. According to her, the library should have better security and more frequent inspections of the material base.
Boulder officials suggested that the closure of their city’s library last month was the result of strict state rules for cleaning up meth after tests revealed it. They also pointed out that the standards for the permissible amount of methamphetamine contamination were developed with an eye on homes, where frequent exposure is more likely than in public buildings.
Colorado’s rules are “among the most conservative in the nation, taking great care to protect infants and children from exposure,” the city said in a Dec. 28 statement.
The Boulder library has since reopened, but its bathrooms remain closed as crews do decontamination work, including replacing fans and vents, spokeswoman Annie Elliott said. Once this is done, the bathrooms will remain locked and anyone who needs to use them will have to request access from an employee or security guard.
The Englewood Library has made some changes to help the homeless people who go there. An outreach group comes every Monday to offer services such as help getting identification, food vouchers and housing, according to Underhill.
However, after some library users said they didn’t feel safe, the city hired security last year, she said. It also established a code of conduct to help librarians enforce the rules.
Englewood also recently increased funding to add more staff in hopes of deterring drug use, according to the library’s website.
“The use of the library has changed,” Underhill said. “More people are coming to use it as a shelter area.”
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