90% of US bills carry trace amounts of Cocaine

[Warped]

(CNN) -- The term "dirty money" is for real.

In the course of its average 20 months in circulation, U.S. currency gets whisked into ATMs, clutched, touched and traded perhaps thousands of times at coffee shops, convenience stores and newsstands. And every touch to every bill brings specks of dirt, food, germs or even drug residue.

Research presented this weekend reinforced previous findings that 90 percent of paper money circulating in U.S. cities contains traces of cocaine.

"When I was a young kid, my mom told me the dirtiest thing in the world is money," said the researcher, Yuegang Zuo, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. "Mom is always right."

Scientists say the amount of cocaine found on bills is not enough to cause health risks.

Money can be contaminated with cocaine during drug deals or if a user snorts with a bill. But not all bills are involved in drug use; they can get contaminated inside currency-counting machines at the bank.

"When the machine gets contaminated, it transfers the cocaine to the other bank notes," Zuo said. These bills have fewer remnants of cocaine. Some of the dollars in his experiment had .006 micrograms, which is several thousands of times smaller than a single grain of sand.

Cities and cocaine
Bills turned up positive for cocaine in these percentages in certain cities:

100 percent: Detroit, Michigan; Boston, Massachusetts; Orlando, Florida; Miami, Florida; Los Angeles, California

88 percent: Toronto, Canada

77 percent: Salt Lake City, Utah

75 percent: Brasilia, Brazil

20 percent: Tokyo, Japan; Beijing, China

0 percent: Zhuzhou, China


Source: Yuegang Zuo, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Zuo, who spoke about his research at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society on Sunday, found that $5, $10, $20 and $50 bills were more likely to be positive for cocaine than $1 bills.

"Probably $1 is a little too less to purchase cocaine," Zuo said "I don't know exactly [why]. It's an educated guess."

For years, health agencies have advised people to wash their hands after touching cash for sanitary reasons. Disease-causing organisms such as staphylococcus aureus and pneumonia-causing bacteria have been detected in paper bills. According to a 2002 study published in the Southern Medical Journal, 94 percent of the tested bills had potentially disease-causing organisms.

Adam Negrusz, an associate professor of forensic sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said he isn't worried about the cleanliness of money in terms of public health.

"I never think about this as a source of danger. We have more things which can be potentially harmful," said Negrusz, who was not involved in Zuo's study.

Cocaine binds to the green dye in money, he said.

In 1998, Negrusz published similar findings after comparing freshly printed dollar bills that were not released to the public and money collected from a suburb near Chicago, Illinois. In the study, 92.8 percent of the bills from the public had traces of cocaine, but the uncirculated bills tested negative.

Although the contaminated bills do not affect health, Negrusz said, they could cause in a false positive drug test if a person, such as a law enforcement officer or banker, handles contaminated currency repeatedly.

"Imagine a bank teller who's working with cash-counting machine in the basement of the bank," Negrusz said. "Many of those bills, over 90 percent, are contaminated with cocaine. There is cocaine dust around the machines. These bank tellers breathe in cocaine. Cocaine gets into system, and you can test positive for cocaine. ... That's what's behind this whole thing that triggered testing money for drugs."

Zuo hopes to compile the data from his research to form a drug use map, saying it could provide insights about regional cocaine use.
Health Library

* MayoClinic.com: Help loved ones overcome drug abuse

In his study, the rate of drug-contaminated money varied geographically from urban to less populated areas. A hundred percent of the sample bills collected from major cities such as Miami, Florida; Boston, Massachusetts; and Detroit, Michigan, tested positive for cocaine, but samples collected from smaller cities such as Salt Lake City, Utah; Niagara Falls, New York;and Dearborn, Michigan, had 87 to 67 percent.

Compared with currency from Brazil, Canada, China and Japan, U.S. bills had the highest percentage of cocaine, with 90 percent of 234 bank notes contaminated. Canada followed with 85 percent and Brazil with 80 percent. China and Japan had the lowest, with 20 and 12 percent respectively.

"Actually, we were surprised to find cocaine in Chinese bank note," Zuo said after analyzing 112 samples from China.

After the Communist Party took over, the country was relatively free of drugs from 1949 until the 1980s because of harsh punishments against substance use, he said. Two years ago, Zuo collaborated with Beijing scientists on testing bank notes and didn't find any contamination with cocaine.

"In the last year, 2008, we found trace amounts of cocaine," he said.

Its funny because i live relatively close to Toronto but I have a feeling my money was dirty to begin with. Also I bet many have been fired because of just working around large amounts of money, and my bro used to work in a large local bank counting millions too. hmmm

 

[Krynn72]

When people say "trace amounts" what are they actually saying? I hear it all the time and assume it just means a very small amount thats just barely traceable, but is that right?

 

[Warped]

in some cases, they mention that they suggested that people have lost their jobs because they were breathing it in, lets say if they worked around large sums of money. so yeah trace can be ok for the majority, but in some circumstances it can be too much and be inhaled on accident

 

[Tollbooth Willie]

I do cocaine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf4OAqS5ycw

 

[cleverendeavouR]

Maybe this is the reason I feel high at work sometimes.

 

[ThunderDawg]

This is old news. They dredge it up and re-report it about every four years.

 

[Raziaar]

Yeah this is kind of old news for me too. Money gets contaminated very easily by other bills when they get handled in legitimate ways.

 

[Tyguy]

100% in Boston??? I wouldn't argue that it would be high but that's a tad unlikely.

 

[Danimal]

It's not 100% of every bill in Boston. I wonder what part they gathered the notes in.

 

[Qonfused]

Go Detroit!

 

[Tacoeaterguy]

That cocaine brick looks like the soap I use.

 

[Qonfused]

"soap"

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

"use"

 

[CptStern]

in some cases, they mention that they suggested that people have lost their jobs because they were breathing it in, lets say if they worked around large sums of money. so yeah trace can be ok for the majority, but in some circumstances it can be too much and be inhaled on accident

this is ridiculous. it would have to be caked on the bill and even then it wouldnt be inhaled. there'd be trace elements on your fingers but the liklihood of feeling any sort of coke "buzz" is next to nil. it certainly wouldnt show up in any drug test

 

[YROC]

I do cocaine.

I do propane.

 

[Tyguy]

It's not 100% of every bill in Boston. I wonder what part they gathered the notes in.

100 percent - boston, to me at least, means all the bills in boston. why use 100 if they meant most?

no hablo teh english

 

[Warped]

100% of the bills tested i think they mentioned...it doesn't mean 100% of the total amount in circulation.

 

[ThunderDawg]

this is ridiculous. it would have to be caked on the bill and even then it wouldnt be inhaled. there'd be trace elements on your fingers but the liklihood of feeling any sort of coke "buzz" is next to nil. it certainly wouldnt show up in any drug test

Actually, if you handle a lot of cash, you likely have an infinitesimal amount in your bloodstream. Drug tests today can detect even a few molecules per milliliter. They have to set a tolerance level for ambient positive results. For example, if you have never used cocaine, there might be 7 parts per million, but the tolerance level is twenty five ppm. People who do use cocaine may have several hundred ppm.

 

[Danimal]

100 percent - boston, to me at least, means all the bills in boston. why use 100 if they meant most?

no hablo teh english

lol, so they go around Boston, stealing bills off everyone there.

I'm sure they meant "100% of the notes we sampled".