May 9 (UPI) — Scientists are using two technologies to detect the lowest traces of fentanyl or other synthetic opioids to protect first responders from exposure.
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, used the Mobility Spectrometry, or IMS, and Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry, or DART-MS, to detect trace amounts of fentanyl even when mixed with heroin or other substances to protect first responders from getting sick from exposure.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid drug similar to heroin, but 50 times more potent, and even a tiny amount inhaled or absorbed through the skin can be extremely dangerous or deadly. Heroin laced with fentanyl is responsible for the majority of opioid overdose deaths.
More than 52,000 people died of drug overdoses in the United States in 2015 and from 2014 to 2015, the death rate from synthetic opioids increased by 72 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC.
A particularly dangerous fentanyl analog called carfentanil is used as a large animal tranquilizer and is 100 times more potent than fentanyl and 5,000 times more potent than heroin.
The research, detailed in the journal Forensic Chemistry, was the first to identify the lowest concentrations at which fentanyl mixtures can be detected using the techniques.
IMS instruments are used at airports, with security officers swabbing a piece of luggage or a passenger’s hands to check for traces of explosive residue.
“Currently, police officers have to handle drugs to test them,” Ed Sisco, a research chemist at NIST, said in a press release. “But with these technologies, they can just swab the outside of a bag to test for fentanyl.”
IMS instruments cost about $35,000 and are the size of a microwave oven. DART-MS instruments are more sensitive but also larger and more expensive.
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