First Responders at Risk of Accidental Overdose.

• Position: FENTANYL

In May 2017, sheriff's deputy and paramedic Kevin Phillips experienced overdose symptoms after searching a Maryland home for drugs. In Ohio, patrolman Chris Green passed out after brushing white powder from his uniform following a drug-related traffic stop. Both officers suffered accidental exposure to fentanyl and had to be revived with an overdose-reversing drug.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, Washington, D.C., estimates that fentanyl is 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin and 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. According to the DEA, just two to three milligrams of fentanyl--an amount equivalent to five to seven grains of table salt--is capable of causing respiratory depression and arrest, and potentially even death, if it is ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin or eyes.

Provisional counts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga., show that fatalities linked to synthetic opioids--including fentanyl--rose from 9,945 to 20,145 between January 2016 and January 2017. Another CDC report reveals that fentanyl was detected in at least half of all opioid overdose deaths in seven of the 10 states examined; in total, fentanyl was linked to 56.3% of all opioid-related fatalities recorded in the six-month study.

"Fentanyl poses an extreme hazard to the public, both to those who ingest the drug and others who inadvertently come into...