A Dangerous Industrial Chemical is Showing Up in Fentanyl in the U.S.

An industrial chemical used in plastic products has been cropping up in illegal drugs from California to Maine, a sudden and puzzling shift in the drug supply that has alarmed health researchers.

Its name is bis(2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidyl) sebacate, commonly abbreviated as BTMPS. The chemical is used in plastic for protection against ultraviolet rays, as well as for other commercial uses.

In an analysis released Monday, researchers from UCLA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and other academic institutions and harm reduction groups collected and tested more than 170 samples of drugs that had been sold as fentanyl in Los Angeles and Philadelphia this summer. They found roughly a quarter of the drugs contained BTMPS.

The PubChem database lists a number of possible hazards associated with BTMPS, including skin irritation and eye damage. People who use drugs have said that BTMPS can smell like bug spray or plastic and have reported blurred vision, nausea and coughing after ingesting it. One told researchers that “it smelled so bad I could barely smoke it.” The UCLA and NIST researchers warned that “with such a sudden and sustained prevalence in the drug supply, users are at risk of repeated, ongoing exposures, which may compound health effects.”

The volume of BTMPS being identified in fentanyl is unprecedented, according to researchers, who suggest that based on the testing results of their samples, tens of thousands of fentanyl users are being exposed to BTMPS, sometimes at very high volumes. University of North Carolina researchers have likewise found BTMPS to be present in more than 200 samples from a dozen states, stretching from the West Coast to Maine.

Much about the drug BTMPS remains unknown, including whether BTMPS poses an overdose risk, but warns that every substance at some volume will be toxic.