It sounds like a plot from the award-winning former TV series “Breaking Bad”: Authorities have arrested two college chemistry professors in connection with the production of methamphetamine.
»FROM SEPTEMBER: Walter White doppelganger wanted on meth-related probation violation, police say
The instructors, Terry D. Bateman, 45, and Bradley A. Rowland, 40, were charged Friday with manufacturing methamphetamine and using drug paraphernalia, the Clark County Sheriff’s Department said.
Both are associate professors of chemistry at Henderson State University, a liberal arts school of about 3,500 students in Arkadelphia, about 70 miles southwest of Little Rock. Both remain listed as employees on the university’s website.
The professors have been on administrative leave since Oct. 11, said Tina V. Hall, a university associate vice president of marketing and communications.
Hall said the school’s Reynolds Science Center was closed Oct. 8 because of “a report of an undetermined chemical odor.”
Testing revealed an elevated presence of benzyl chloride in a lab, she said.
Benzyl chloride is used to produce certain dyes and pharmaceutical products, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Short-term effects from inhaling it include irritation of the skin, eyes and upper respiratory tract.
“Benzyl chloride is an inexpensive and versatile chemical that is used to make many other useful drugs and molecules,” Eric E. Simanek, a professor of chemistry at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, said Sunday.
Stephen J. Madison, who is on the chemistry faculty at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, said benzyl chloride could be used to help make methamphetamine.
Henderson State University’s on-call environmental services company conducted remediation work in the building, which reopened Oct. 29, Hall said.
“The safety of our students, faculty and staff is a top priority, and we continue to cooperate with authorities,” she said.
"Benzyl chloride is an inexpensive and versatile chemical that is used to make many other useful drugs and molecules."— Eric E. Simanek, a professor of chemistry at Texas Christian University
It was not clear whether the chemical smell in the school building had prompted the investigation by law enforcement.
Hall referred questions about whether the instructors were making meth on campus to the sheriff’s department.
Sheriff Jason C. Watson did not respond to a request for comment Sunday.
Bateman and Rowland could not immediately be reached for comment. Their court appearances are pending, according to the sheriff’s department.
In April, Bateman was honored by the school for 10 years of employment there, according to the university.
Their arrests called to mind the wildly popular “Breaking Bad” series, which ran from 2008 to 2015. The drama followed Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher played by Bryan Cranston who becomes an Albuquerque, New Mexico, drug lord when he can’t afford his cancer treatments.
Meth is a highly addictive drug that can be manufactured illegally with chemicals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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