{"id":3139,"date":"2023-01-02T03:01:41","date_gmt":"2023-01-02T09:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=3139"},"modified":"2023-03-14T03:08:32","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T08:08:32","slug":"meth-hazard-prompts-closure-of-us-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=3139","title":{"rendered":"<strong>Meth hazard prompts closure of US library<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The main public library in Boulder, Colorado has been temporarily closed due to heavy drug contamination caused by an influx of meth-smoking visitors, according to local officials.<br \/>\nThe facility was shut down on December 20 after\u00a0\u201chigher than acceptable methamphetamine levels were found in a restroom air duct,\u201d\u00a0city authorities said in a statement.<br \/>\nThe decision to close the library and undertake additional\u00a0\u201cenvironmental testing\u201d\u00a0was prompted by a\u00a0\u201crecent spike in reports of individuals smoking in public restrooms over the past four weeks,\u201d\u00a0they added. Swab samples were taken from surfaces inside and outside the restrooms.<br \/>\n\u201cThe tests showed that residue inside the ducts had higher than acceptable levels of methamphetamine. The ducts blow air and contaminants outside the building, but it is not yet clear what, if any, level of contaminants is on surfaces,\u201d\u00a0the statement read.<br \/>\nThe city provided an update on the situation on December 28, revealing that the tests had shown that the drug contamination was\u00a0\u201cconfined largely to public restrooms, with some limited impacts to highly trafficked seating areas.\u201d<br \/>\nThe affected areas will be subjected to\u00a0\u201cprofessional remediation,\u201d\u00a0and the facility is expected to reopen on January 3 at the earliest. However, the library\u2019s restrooms may remain out of service after this date, the city warned.<br \/>\n\u201cConsideration is being given to the level of restroom service the building will need in the future and how to ensure that no illegal activity occurs in these private and enclosed spaces. It is not yet clear if, and when, public restrooms will be brought back,\u201d\u00a0it explained.<br \/>\nThe meth incident has attracted widespread attention from the media, the authorities noted, pledging to release detailed test results on the levels of drug contamination at the library in the near future.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/569269-us-meth-library-closure\/\">Rt<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The main public library in Boulder, Colorado has been temporarily closed due to heavy drug contamination caused by an influx of meth-smoking visitors, according to local officials. The facility was shut down on December 20 after\u00a0\u201chigher than acceptable methamphetamine levels were found in a restroom air duct,\u201d\u00a0city authorities said in a statement. The decision to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3285,3283,3284],"class_list":["post-3139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-american-library","tag-drug-contamination","tag-methamphetamine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3139"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7447,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3139\/revisions\/7447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}