In hindsight, HB404 should have been in place years ago, said Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, one of the bill's sponsors.

"We have 12 cops who are now dead who went into those homes not knowing the risk," Buttars said, noting that scores more are sick.

Buttars was referring to police officers who busted methamphetamine labs in the 1980s and 1990s, before anyone connected the hazardous residue to life-threatening illnesses.

"It's hard to prove because you can't conduct a case-controlled study -- no one would be willing to participate," said Gary Edwards, executive director of the Salt Lake Valley Health Department.

"It's similar to what we've learned about tobacco. It took many years to come up with definitive proof."

The University of Utah's Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health is conducting research on the health effects of law enforcement personnel who bust meth houses.

Under HB404, now awaiting the governor's signature, property owners would be required to disclose to potential buyers or renters if a structure was contaminated by meth. Enforcement would be conducted through a civil lawsuit.

Until recently, high-level meth contamination was linked with production, not use. HB404 closes that gap.

"Meth use can cause contamination as dangerous as manufacturing," said Mary Lou Emerson, director of the Utah Substance Abuse and Anti-Violence Coordinating Council.

Rich County Commissioner Bill Cox, a leader of the state's two-year methamphetamine task force, noted an incident in which daily meth use by a renter and his girlfriend landed their home on the Health Department's bad-sites list.

"They'd never cooked [meth] there, but the contamination was just as high," Cox said.

HB404 brings rentals and sold-by-owner properties under the disclosure mandate, said Mike Ostermiller, chief executive officer for the Northern Wasatch Association of Realtors.

HB404, sponsored in the House by Rep. Merlynn Newbold, R-South Jordan, had Utah's Realtors on board for two reasons, Ostermiller said.

First, when the Health Department certifies that a property is clean, it drops off the list of "stigmatized" sites. HB404 also releases real estate agents from liability.

"The seller must make that disclosure, not the Realtor," Ostermiller added.

HB404 protects consumers, said Newbold, but it also goes further.

""It helps property owners get a clean bill of health. I think everyone won," she said.

State Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said he made Utah's raging meth problem a top priority when he took office in 2001.

"There were 266 meth labs busted here in 1999," Shurtleff said, noting the number shrank to three in 2008.

While in-state production has dropped off, usage continues.

"It is the number one reason families get involved with so many government services," Litvack said.

Cottonwood Heights Police Chief Robby Russo cleaned up many of the labs in their early days, and lost a kidney to cancer. He has also bid farewell to colleagues who did not survive.

"We didn't use protective clothing then," Russo said. "We were the blue canaries."

cmckitrick@sltrib.com