9 hours Ago By Christie Ileto
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A new chemical is molding a new narcotic nightmare in Philadelphia. BTMPS is shorthand for an industrial substance that's added to plastics, and it's being found in the illicit fentanyl supply in Philadelphia. "It's changing extremely rapidly, like day-to-day, hour-to-hour," said Jen Shinefeld with the Everywhere Project.
"I've never seen it transition as quickly as we're seeing it transition now." The Everywhere Project aims to expand the reach of harm reduction resources by passing out clean syringes and naloxone to those battling addiction, specifically Kensington - the epicenter of the city's opioid epidemic. Shinefeld says lately there's been a shift from xylazine-laced drugs, or tranq, to stronger substances including BTMPS.
"The standard name for that is Tunivin 770," Shinefeld said. "It's used in plastics. Like, it seals plastic.
It's not a drug." She says it's not known why it entered the supply. Last fall the city's health department issued a health alert saying the chemical had been detected in Philadelphia's drug supply.
The advisory said, "The number of samples tested is relatively low and we cannot be sure how widespread." Fast forward to last month when the Journal of the American Medical Association, or JAMA, found the chemical had been introduced to the illicit fentanyl supply in nine U.S.
locations. Research on the effects of BTMPS on humans is limited, but animal studies show it impacts the heart, blurs vision and in some cases causes death..
