Multnomah County Called in Feds to Examine Fentanyl Exposures in Library System

Concern about fentanyl smoke in library bathrooms became so acute last year that Multnomah County asked a federal regulator to assess the situation.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, examined three county libraries in June, inspecting facilities, reviewing incident reports and interviewing employees, and issued its report on May 7.

The news nonprofit InvestigateWest first reported earlier this month on the county’s request for federal help. After reaching out to the library system for comment, WW learned that NIOSH had provided officials with its final report.

Among the findings: of the 95 employees interviewed, 34 reported at least one exposure to illicit drugs through the air or uncovered skin in the 12 months that ended last June; none of the restroom exhaust fans worked in one of the three libraries; and investigators found a needle stuck in the ceiling tile in one library restroom.

“Approximately one-third of interviewed library employees reported being exposed to illicit drugs in the workplace in the past 12 months,” NIOSH investigators wrote in the 41-page report obtained by WW. “Most incidents involved exposure through the air, in or near a library restroom, or with fentanyl as the suspected substance.”

County documents first obtained by Investigate West show that NIOSH visited three library branches in June 2024: Central, Hollywood and Belmont. “Only the three most impacted county library locations will be included in the health hazard evaluations of this project,” library officials wrote in a document describing the scope of work.

There are 19 libraries in the Multnomah County system. The ones NIOSH chose had reported drug incidents or had bathroom configurations that were similar to others in the system.

Fentanyl became common on the streets of Portland starting in 2019, when users started smoking the blue pills as a more potent, convenient alternative to injecting opioids. Bathrooms in public libraries became favored venues for getting high.

Multnomah County’s risk management department reached out to NIOSH, which provides reports like this one free of charge, after reviewing guidance on how to mitigate the danger of exposure to illicit drugs in the workplace. Most of that guidance focused on first responders and drug-lab cleanup crews, a library spokesman said, not on library workers.

NIOSH is part of the Centers for Disease Control. Three weeks ago, the Trump administration proposed cutting 900 NIOSH employees, or 90% of its workforce. The administration reversed course after a coal miner brought a federal lawsuit challenging the cuts, and some members of Congress opposed it, according to National Public Radio.

Word that NIOSH was working with Multnomah County was first reported by InvestigateWest in a story about how Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, under the leadership of rocket billionaire Elon Musk, was slashing NIOSH, endangering miners and others in high-risk occupations who rely on the agency for on-the-job safety.

As of May 13, when InvestigateWest published its story, NIOSH hadn’t delivered the library report. Multnomah County Director of Libraries Annie Lewis told the publication that she was worried that the cuts to NIOSH would send the report into oblivion after months of work.

“If it’s not released, we will be very disappointed,” Lewis told InvestigateWest. “We’ve invested a lot of our staff time, a lot of our resources into this effort, and we are very hopeful that the research will not only benefit Multnomah County Library as an organization, but also public libraries across the nation.”

For Multnomah County libraries, NIOSH recommended improving ventilation in bathrooms, offering more training to employees who might encounter illicit drugs, asking workers for input on how to improve their safety, and boosting efforts to protect against blood-borne pathogens.

The county didn’t wait for the final report to begin work on the issue, a library spokesman said in an email. It checked its bathroom exhaust fans to make sure they complied with specific airflow guidelines described in the report. It also began work with the library security trainer, county risk managers and, public health workers to develop new training.

The library without working bathroom fans, the Belmont branch, is already in the midst of a wholesale renovation.