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WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (AP) -- Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is proposing a treatment program for police officers exposed to methamphetamine that he'd like to be available for free.
Shurtleff met with some 150 police officers and firefighters here Wednesday about the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Program.
Earlier, Shurtleff said such a program might be paid for by donations, but now the Legislature, which convenes in January, is likely to get involved.
"It's all about competing for money," Shurtleff said, adding he'd talked to Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, who indicated the Legislature would be interested in looking for funding for the project.
More than 50 Utah officers have filed workers compensation claims with the state, claiming ill effects from exposure to the chemicals used in making methamphetamine.
The New York program was established to help public safety and rescue personnel exposed to dangerous chemicals working the Sept. 11, 2001, collapse and cleanup of the World Trade Center towers in Manhattan.
Jim Woodworth, president of the program, said in four years of operation in New York, the program has successfully treated 750 people with contamination from ground zero. He described a program of exercise, sauna visits and vitamin supplements that can result in purple, even black-tinted sweat as toxins are eliminated by the body.
He told the group that the body normally rids itself of 99 percent of potentially harmful toxins. The detox program goes after the remaining poisons. Programs typically run 30 days at a cost of $3,500 to $5,000.
Afterward, local police on hand for the session were taking a wait-and-see attitude. Shurtleff has said he envisioned needing $50,000 to start up.
"It's the same problem -- where to find the money," said Mike Wells, an inspector in the Weber County sheriff's office.
Wells is among the officers who has filed a meth-related workers comp claim. He said he suffers from three or four migraine-force headaches a week and neck spasms tied to nerve problems and that he has no feeling in three fingers.
"We'll probably know in March if this program has legs," Harrisville Police Chief Max Jackson said, referring to the month when the annual Executive Development Institute, a large law enforcement conference, is held. "Then we'll know if it's on the fast track or not."
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
