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It’s exam time again Ashburton College students were among 40,000 students around the country sitting NCEA Level 1 exams yesterday.
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House meth tests on the increase BY SUE NEWMAN
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Testing for methamphetamine contamination could become just another prepurchase requirement for home buyers an Ashburton real estate agent says. Kim Miller has qualified as a registered methamphetamine tester and said people would be surprised at the range of properties that are now testing positive for contamination. It’s not just houses in rough neighbourhoods, it could be the house next door, she said. Testing is still not common in Ashburton, but she says in parts of New Zealand it is becoming almost standard practice. “Buyers and sellers need to be aware that a house could have meth contami-
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nation. It’s huge and you’ll find in big metropolitan cities just about every property is tested now. This will come here.” The need to run checks was particularly important for someone buying a property that had been rented for a number of years, Mrs Miller said. Running a meth check on a property was about keeping people safe and the service was available to anyone, not just clients of her employer, Ray White, Mrs Miller said. “People should talk to their real estate agent about what’s best, they’re trained to do this, to give the right advice. And there will be houses in Ashburton that people are just not aware of.” Testers take swabs from every room and outbuilding. These are sent for in-
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dependent testing and will indicate if there is a trace of the substance. The next step is to determine whether the contamination comes from smoking or cooking the product. If testing is still not widely used by private property owners and landlords, New Zealand’s largest property owner, Housing New Zealand is a regular user of testing services. Over the past year six out of 186 Ashburton Housing New Zealand properties have been tested for methamphetamine contamination. Four have returned negative results, but two have needed decontamination.
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