- A Seattle bus driver is on medical leave after being exposed to fentanyl smoke
- Seattle & King County Public Health social worker Thea Oliphant-Wells, a recovering heroin addict, earlier encouraged drug users to continue using in public
- The driver said users regularly smoke in front of families on his bus
'A key indication of just how bad things are at the end of 2022 and likely to get worse [in] 2023, the medical examiner's office is now struggling with the issue of storing bodies because the fentanyl-related death toll continues to climb,' Seattle-King County Public Health Director Dr. Faisal Khan recently said.
Officials said they are looking into temporary options to counteract the finite amount of space available in the morgues.
'We have options for temporary morgue surge capacity when our census count gets high, including storing decedents on autopsy gurneys and partnerships with funeral homes,' a public health spokesperson told KTHH.
'We're exploring longer-term options for adding more capacity,' they continued.
Khan said he believes many of the recent deaths have been caused by the discrete inclusion of fentanyl in drugs that look like prescription pills. He also said the drug can be made to look like cocaine or heroin.
'People do not realize that they are taking fentanyl,' Khan said.
He also added that fentanyl is the 'biggest driver' of the overdoses and that the drug is being found in 'white powder and in fake pills, which are flooding the streets.'
In 2022, a record 310 homeless people died in the Seattle area last year, highlighting the region’s struggle to house the thousands of people living on its streets. The 310 deaths in King County surpassed the previous record of 195 homeless deaths set in 2018, and marked a 65 percent jump over 2021.
Last year, Public Health – Seattle & King County distributed more than 10,000 kits of naloxone, a medication that can reverse opioid overdoses, and about 100,000 fentanyl test strips.
Fentanyl has been driving overdose fatalities in the county more broadly, regardless of people’s housing status. As of November, it was involved in 70% of all confirmed overdose deaths in the county in 2022, according to a recent report by Public Health – Seattle & King County.