Even law enforcement tightened up procedures. In June 2017, the DEA recommended that first responders wear safety goggles, masks, and even hazmat suits to avoid skin contact with fentanyl and other powerful synthetics after reports of officers having to be Narcanned when they inadvertently brushed up against them on calls. But these guidelines came way too late for caregivers in the coalfields: Tyson’s life-and-death scare in Clinchco took place more than a decade earlier—in 2006.
