Photo: John K. White

Media reports from the U.S. suggesting first responders were at risk of fentanyl overdoses when administering naloxone to overdose victims stoked fears about offering aid to victims worldwide.

The BC Centre for Disease Control released a Q&A called Fentanyl and First Responders that details the myths and truths around aiding someone suspected of overdosing on fentanyl.

The RCMP echoed that response in an article in their Gazette that reassured officers wearing gloves was typically enough protection when encountering a potential overdose victim.

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"Some first responders and health-care workers are understandably worried about the risk of being exposed to unsafe levels of fentanyl and other opioids as part of their work. We know that this risk is very small," the BC Centre for Disease Control said in their report.

"Despite media reports, there have been no verified cases of overdose or sickness in first responders, health-care workers, or ordinary citizens who have given first aid, medical care or administered naloxone, despite thousands of overdose reversals."

Fentanyl can be absorbed through the skin, however, fentanyl crystals on dry skin are not absorbed easily and will take hours to get into the bloodstream, the BCCDC said. Fentanyl will be absorbed faster through mucous membranes in the eyes, nose and mouth.

They said cases reported by the news have described symptoms which are not consistent with an overdose. In B.C., testing of the materials and environments involved with reported occupational overdoses have been negative for opioids, including fentanyl.

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"The biggest danger of this attitude is that people will be too afraid to provide life-saving care to overdose victims including artificial respiration or breaths and naloxone. This is already happening," the organization said.

Holly Vanjoff, with the Vernon Health Unit, stopped by the Castanet office in Vernon this May to show just how easy it is to use naloxone. When asked about the alleged risk in responding to someone suspected of overdosing on fentanyl, Vanjoff said it is a popular myth.

Vernon North-Okanagan RCMP Supt. Shawna Baher led the component on fentanyl safety in the National Undercover Course between 2015 and 2018. She says that even officers who are covertly buying drugs on the street are at low risk of exposure if they follow their training, she told the RCMP Gazette in January.

"The members know to limit the amount of handling of the drug and to wash their hands as soon as they get back to their car, where they would have bottles of soap and water," Baher said.

"It's always better to be safe than sorry," Baher noted. In 2016, she ran the undercover operations where fentanyl was prolifically being sold in Surrey at the onset of the crisis.

"We don't know what we're dealing with out there," says Baher. "The potency changes every time a dealer mixes a new version."

British Columbia continues to have the most cases of fentanyl overdoses nationally and has had the highest rate of naloxone use by RCMP officers in the country since 2014, when it first became a fentanyl hotspot. According to the naloxone report, of the total 244 times the drug was used by the RCMP on the public, 84 per cent were administered in B.C.

Baher was the second RCMP officer to administer naloxone in Canada and built the business case for naloxone use by the RCMP.

— With files from RCMP Gazette

The video below depicts what can happen when officers come in direct contact with powder, and is not something that would likely occur during a standard overdose response protocol. It is one example of a video that went viral to stir the fear in the U.S.