"Disgustingly sick": Family's horrifying find in rental home
A family of six have been forced to move out of their rental home after discovering it had disturbing levels of meth residue.
The family became “disgustingly sick” after moving into the home located in Sandstone Point Queensland and were told to pay for toxicity testing and decontamination by their real estate agency.
What the tests revealed shocked them, with dangerous levels of methamphetamine residue found in the lounge room, bedrooms, bathrooms and, worst of all, the space used as a toy room for their children.
“(It was) basically everywhere,” Queensland mum Emily Thornton told 7News.
She added that it was "disgusting" to know that her four kids played in that toxic environment.
According to the Clandestine Drug Laboratory Remediation Guidelines, a safe level of meth residue is below 0.5 micrograms per 100 sq cm.
Their house had 1.3 micrograms per 100 sq cm - which is reportedly enough to put people's lives at risk.
The house was allegedly once used as a meth lab, and the family only got it tested for toxicity when a neighbour, who was suspicious of the previous tenants, flagged the possibility.
Now, the family has been left homeless.
“We’re not allowed in there,” Thornton said.
“Basically, we’re starting from scratch — we’ve got nothing, absolutely nothing at all.”
Thornton also added that her family first started feeling sick shortly after they moved in.
“We moved in, (and) we lived here for a little while, (and then) everyone started getting sick,” she said.
“We were told by the neighbours that they suspected something going on here, so we decided to contact a company to get them to come out and do some testing, and the testing came back positive for meth.”
“They’ve told us just to get out, we’ve just taken what we’ve got and walked out the door.”
On top of being homeless, the family had to pay $500 for the toxicity and decontamination testing as both the agent and landlord refused to help them pay to get the home tested.
“They weren’t interested, and it was up to us to do it if we wanted to do it," Thorton said.
7News reported that the real estate agency will ensure that the property is decontaminated, but the family will still have to pay the cost of an emergency accommodation.
“We just don’t know what we’re going to do. We don’t have the money to pay for it,” Thornton said.
Australian Meth Alerts spokesperson David Pie said that Meth residue is a common problem that often gets ignored as the contamination is odourless and invisible to the human eye.
“It is a well-known fact within the real estate industry with property managers that this is a real issue," he said.
“It’s out of control … and it’s just getting ignored,” he added,
“In the worst instances, it can cause death, in particular among young kids. But it creates anger and sleeping problems — it just goes on and on and on.”
He also said that it was "wrong" for Thornton's family to pay out-of-pocket for the tests.
Image: 7News