But equally at risk are the people who don't know they're living near labs filled with explosive chemicals, and the children of meth cookers who absorb the drug's deadly ingredients. Meth's toxic maelstrom Photo gallery Imagine an industry that depends entirely on the use of hazardous chemicals, in which workers are unlicensed, untrained, unregulated and usually not in their right minds.
Children crawl on factory floors beneath the assembly lines.
Spills and explosions are a way of life. The factories are not tucked in lonely industrial zones, but in houses, apartments, motels, cars. Maybe the place next door. That industry exists in the methamphetamine trade. And it's thriving in California.