Illicit drug laboratories and the environment

Abstract

Some clandestine laboratories will dispose of waste by burial or by domestic waste, which will go into landfill. This report investigates what happens to drugs, their precursors and manufacturing by-products when they are buried. It measures the drug's toxicity, examines if it is altered by soil, identifies any altered products and measures if they are toxic to soil, and develops an analytical methodology and data relating to breakdown products.