Law enforcement officers being exposed to dangerous levels of toxic mold on the job

Researchers are warning that police officers could be facing potentially harmful levels of airborne mold while raiding pot-growing operations.

The team reviewed 30 marijuana-growing operations in Colorado and discovered mold levels 100 times higher than considered safe. In some cases the levels were so high the testing equipment couldn`t take a reading. 

"These are pretty incredible exposures," said Dr. John Martyny who conducted the study. "These are extremely high levels that we would consider dangerous.”

The team found that seventy percent of the sites studied had levels that would "be a sufficient concern for anyone who might live there." 

"The threat to the health and safety of our officers posed by these marijuana grows is a different kind of danger that we had not adequately considered," said Barbra Roach, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration-Denver Division. 

The research was funded by a Justice Assistance Grant and the Colorado Drug Investigators Association, the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police, and County Sheriffs of Colorado.

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