False reports by police of poisonings through secondary exposure
In the late 2010s, some media outlets began to report stories of police officers being hospitalized after touching powdered fentanyl, or after brushing it from their clothing. Topical (or transdermal; via the skin) and inhalative exposure to fentanyl is extremely unlikely to cause intoxication or overdose (except in cases of prolonged exposure with very large quantities of fentanyl), and first responders such as paramedics and police officers are at minimal risk of fentanyl poisoning through accidental contact with intact skin. A 2020 article from the Journal of Medical Toxicology stated that "the consensus of the scientific community remains that illness from unintentional exposures is extremely unlikely, because opioids are not efficiently absorbed through the skin and are unlikely to be carried in the air." The American College of Medical Toxicology and the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology issued a joint report in 2017 asserting the risk of fentanyl overdose via incidental transdermal exposure is very low, and it would take 200 minutes of breathing fentanyl at the highest airborne concentrations to yield a therapeutic dose, but not a potentially fatal one. The effects being reported in these cases, including rapid heartbeat, hyperventilation and chills, were not symptoms of a fentanyl overdose, and were more commonly associated with a panic attack.
