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In August 2019, a claim suggesting intravenous (IV) drug users were contaminating toilet paper in public restrooms circulated on social media. In this instance, the alleged contaminant was fentanyl: This was a variation of a familiar claim regarding IV drug use and toilet paper in public restrooms, which we identified as unproven in March 2019. In that fact check, titled Are IV Drug Users Cleaning Needles by Poking Toilet Paper Rolls?, several federal and state-level drug agencies suggested the practice was not familiar to them: Further, the addition of fentanyl places this new claim into a variation of another regularly debunked brand of rumor: that one can be poisoned by simple skin exposure to fentanyl. A joint position statement from the American College of Medical Toxicology (ACMT) and the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology (AACT) disputes that notion: We rate the newer variation as Unproven because it describes a single incident without corroborating evidence. We note, however, that the claim mixes two previously established rumors, one of which — that fentanyl can poison via skin contact alone — is extremely unlikely to be factual. Have you seen other variations of this claim? Let us know.
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