Explainer: You won't overdose on fentanyl just by accidentally touching it

Cassidy Morrison

July 18, 07:00 AM July 18, 07:01 AM

Frightening studies of fentanyl poisoning due to simple exposure to the compound have reinvigorated the doubtful theory that a mere brush with the drug is sufficient to lead to an overdose.

There have been many circumstances of individuals blaming pores and skin make contact with with the remarkably potent opioid for intense reactions, but toxicologists say that this sort of overdoses are not likely or extremely hard.

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The most new tale involves a Kentucky female, Renee Parsons, who picked up a $1 bill off the flooring in a McDonald’s in Nashville, Tennessee, and, she said, right away began to slur her speech, come to feel her overall body go numb, and lose consciousness.

“The law enforcement officer that arrived to get our report instructed us it was a person of two items: Possibly the greenback bill was unintentionally dropped and it experienced been applied to cut and or retail store the medicines, or it was purposely left with drugs on it,” Parsons claimed.

But toxicology experts are skeptical about Parsons’s concept that touching a bill laced with fentanyl induced an immediate reaction.

“I consider it is genuinely unlikely the substance this lady received into her method is fentanyl based on the indicators she had,” Dr. Rebecca Donald, a fentanyl pro at Vanderbilt College Professional medical Centre, told WSMV News. “It is substantially more possible for her to have a response if she had inadvertently rubbed her nose and uncovered that drug to some of the blood vessels in her nose or licked her fingers or rubbed her eyes.”

In reality, the dollar monthly bill experienced no residue on it, and it was discarded by police when they uncovered no proof of a crime.

A different incident occurred in 2017 in which an Arkansas law enforcement department warned the general public about fentanyl residue on Walmart shopping carts. The division warned men and women to wipe off purchasing cart handles prior to utilizing them even though delivering a message on Facebook that claimed touching trace quantities of the material could be toxic. The unique submit has considering that been deleted, and the officer that wrote it issued an apology, indicating he "should have checked into it more."

“You are not able to overdose just by touching fentanyl or a different opioid, and you simply cannot overdose just by remaining all around it,” Dr. Ryan Marino, the clinical director of toxicology and habit at University Hospitals, Cleveland, told Reuters. “It will not get into the air and trigger any person to overdose.”

The report, coupled with widespread problem about the rising prevalence of the lethal drug, reinvigorated the debunked concept.

“The consensus of the scientific neighborhood remains that ailment from unintentional exposures is extremely not likely, because opioids are not competently absorbed by the skin and are not likely to be carried in the air,” according to medical professionals at Johns Hopkins College.

The myth has attained traction thanks to reports from regulation enforcement, as nicely as warnings from the governing administration. Public health and fitness officers only recently eliminated an advisory for 1st responders dealing with opioids about passive exposure to fentanyl. A video clip revealed by the Countrywide Institute for Occupational Security & Health and fitness, an company inside of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was recently taken down simply because it erroneously claimed that first responders and drug enforcement officers are endangered by passive exposure to fentanyl.

“Reports of crisis responders creating signs and symptoms following get hold of with these substances have explained nonspecific findings such as ‘dizziness’ or ‘feeling like entire body shutting down,’ ‘dying’ with out aim symptoms of opioid toxicity these types of as respiratory depression,” the American Higher education of Health-related Toxicology and the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology reported in a joint statement.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opiate up to 100 instances stronger than morphine and 50 instances much better than heroin. An infinitesimal dose can confirm deadly, and drug customers are frequently misled to imagine the merchandise they are consuming are pure when, in point, they are laced with the lethal opioid.

Documented fentanyl-related deaths have greater by 56% from 2019 to 2020. Deaths connected to the synthetic opioid climbed a further more 23% from 2020 to 2021, from about 58,000 fatalities in 2020 to above 71,000 the year soon after.