Dowe: a report released today from the c-d-c says deaths related to fentanyl overdoses are up more than one-thousand percent from 20-11 to 20-16.

This is koam news at ten.

Fentanyl related products on the street, present a hidden danger to first responders and law enforcement who deal with these cases day-to-day.

Koam's chris warner has more.

Tim: "fentanyl is such a deadly drug and it just takes three grains of that to cause death."

And that's what almost happened in fort dodge iowa.

Here, you see body cam video from officers at the fort dodge police department responding to one of their own, exposed to some form of fentanyl earlier this month and taken to the hospital after transporting a suspect in possession of drugs.trevor: "we've kinda started letting our officers know there's more precautions nowadays due to the fact of the potency of the fentanyl."

Nathan honeycutt is the clinical director at ozark center's "new directions" clinic in downtown joplin.

He says even they have seen an influx of patients coming in suffering from fentanyl addiction.honeycutt: through the heroin and through their body's tolerance to it, they were having to find something else in order to feel, to get that high that they're looking for, problem is that fentanyl can easily cross the line into death without an issue."

We spoke with sergeant tim williams of the jasper county sheriff's office and lieutenant trevor williams with the newton county sheriff's office who both tell us due to the rise in fentanyl in our area, they've had to add extra precautions or change procedures for officers when it comes to drug-related calls.

In jasper county, they've changed the gloves they use from yellow to black.tim: "so that way if we do get a white powdery substance on our hands while we're searching someone's belongings or their house, then we see it, and we know to take that glove off."

In newton county, they've taken other precautions as well.trevor: so a lot of times what we'll do is just say that it is a controlled substance, and then we'll just send it to the crime lab for a final analysis."

Both departments say as much as they drive it home to their officers the dangers of fentanyl, they want to drive it home harder to the public, how deadly the drug can be.

In southwest missouri, chris warner, koam news.

Dowe: we did reach out to the jasper county coroner who says, over the past few months, there has been a slight decrease in deaths related to fentanyl in the county, but that number is still up from an increase in deaths that began two years ago.

Dowe: