MISSOULA, Mont. - The dope is cooked over a backpacking stove instead of on a putrid hot plate, and the woman in a lab coat and latex gloves is a post-doctorate fellow, not a drug manufacturer.

Her office is neither a converted motor home nor a backwoods trailer, but a chemistry lab at the University of Montana, where batches of acrid chemicals are stored neatly on steel shelving units or in lockers, rather than on a living room floor amid a young child's play toys.

She is Dr. Sandra Wells, and, standing beside a fume hood that swallows the toxic gases associated with cooking and smoking crank, she's explaining how UM's Center for Environmental Health Sciences came to have a functioning methamphetamine lab in one of its academic buildings.

The idea is simple: By simulating an environment where meth is smoked and manufactured, Wells hopes to pinpoint the health hazards associated with exposing children to the drug.

Even in its infancy, Wells' research is the only study of its kind to try and identify the health effects related to meth exposure, positioning UM as a national leader.

She expects to publish the first batch of results very soon.

"I can say we have some very promising preliminary data that indicates acute respiratory distress, and we're moving forward based on those results," she said. "This will be the first information available out there to address pulmonary injuries in children related to these exposures."

But already, her activism and involvement with the Montana Alliance for Drug Endangered Children, an offshoot of the federal program established to protect children who've been exposed to methamphetamine, has led to proposed legislation seeking to expand the offense of child endangerment in Montana. Passage of the bill would make exposing children to meth a felony under any circumstance, even if they weren't present at the time of a bust.

"The fact that there is no good data out there, nothing to record any of the dangers these children are facing, that's concerning," Wells said. "We should be able to tell (state officials) with certainty what constitutes child endangerment."

To be fair, Montana lawmakers have taken steps to create an increasingly unfriendly environment for meth cooks and distributors, but there is no concrete evidence to show how children are being impaired, or even if there are long-term health effects associated with exposure to methamphetamine.

Not surprisingly, horrifying bits of anecdotal information abound as social workers, law enforcement officials and pediatricians come into contact with a steady stream of children who have been put in protective custody after being exposed to meth. Matted or missing hair, dental decay, rashes, scabies, signs of neglect, sexualized behavior are all standard fare.

But there is no data to show that a child will experience long-term lung problems, like asthma or pulmonary fibrosis, if he or she lives at a residence where meth is cooked, Wells said.

"It's not like secondhand cigarette smoke where we know for a fact that exposure is harmful," Wells said. "We treat meth as though it's radioactive, but in fact it's been approved for medicinal use at lower levels. I expect there probably is a safe level of exposure to meth, we're just not sure what it is."

And that's the trouble. Without sound data, it's impossible to convey with any measure of certainty just how endangered these children have become, or how urgent their care should be.

Certainly, lawmakers recognize the obvious dangers associated with raising a child in an environment where meth is used and manufactured. Fires and explosions are a constant hazard, as are the presence of firearms, booby traps and toxic chemicals.

Inhaling or ingesting contaminated foods can result in death, and chemical burns can permanently disfigure. Physical and sexual abuse are all too common in families where meth is present, as is the overwhelming presence of pornography, though neglect is most predominant.

A 2005 state statute created stiffer penalties for anyone convicted of selling drugs near a school, while other changes in Montana law have allowed harsher sentences for people who operate an illegal drug lab in the presence of someone under the age of 18.

But there's little protocol for how to treat drug-endangered children, or even where they stand as a priority in the struggle against methamphetamine.

"As we understand more about the health effects, we can serve as a guide to legislators and prosecutors," Wells said.

Wells is confident the research will raise awareness of the problem's significance, and reconstruct protocol for health professionals, law enforcement and social workers.

Reporter Tristan Scott can be reached at 523-5264 or at tscott@missoulian.com