Exposing children to the dangers of a covert methamphetamine lab goes beyond what Maine’s child endangerment laws can accommodate.

If the charges against Louis Rubino and Donna Pagnani are true, they should also face charges of aggravated assault or elevated aggravated assault.

Rubino, 25, and Pagnani, 21, were arrested Wednesday in connection with a suspected methamphetamine lab that police say the two operated in their Sabattus Street apartment.

A 3-year-old girl, who shared the apartment with Rubino and Pagnani, was sent to the hospital and then placed into the custody of the state’s Department of Health and Human Services.

Methamphetamine labs can be extremely dangerous. The chemicals that are used to produce the drug can explode. Buildings where labs are hidden can be ruined, turned into toxic waste sites that are unfit and unsafe for people. For every pound of the drug that’s made, as much as six pounds of toxic waste can be created.

Too often, the labs are discovered only after a fire or explosion. Firefighters and police officers have been seriously harmed by the toxic exposure of responding to meth labs.

Methamphetamine can be made by extracting its ingredients from cold medicine, paint thinner and other commonly available supplies. The compounds, however, are toxic and can kill. They attack the central nervous system, mucous membranes, skin, eyes and lungs, and can cause significant and permanent damage. That’s why police entered the suspected lab so cautiously, donning protective equipment to guard against chemical exposure.

But as much danger as the police faced entering the apartment, the 3-year-old girl living there faced a more uncertain fate. The long-term effects for a child exposed to methamphetamine production are still being studied. Developmental delays, including difficulties with speech, are common. Other effects include anemia and neurological damage. Because kids have a faster metabolism and rate of breathing, they’re more likely than adults to be contaminated. For a child sharing her living space with a meth lab, it’s impossible to escape exposure. The chemicals seep into everything in the house, saturating carpets, covering plates and dishes and contaminating toys and clothes.

The chaotic and drug-addled environment common in a home-turned-meth-lab also poses a serious risk to the emotional and psychological development of a young child. Keeping a child in that environment is abuse, plain and simple.

There are a lot of reasons that people become embroiled in the drug trade. None of them is good. It’s particularly despicable when those bad decisions endanger – and often harm – a young, innocent child. It’s reckless and inexcusable.

Children exposed to drug and alcohol abuse are always at a higher risk of abuse and neglect. But meth labs up the danger. These kids are victims of a potentially devastating crime, and they should be treated as such. The people who put them in harm’s way should face the full force of the law, and not just for making drugs.

According to Maine statute, child endangerment is a Class D crime, punishable by less than one year in county jail. Exposing a child to the poisons of a meth lab demands a more severe punishment. A case could be made for a charge of elevated aggravated assault, a Class A crime that carries a minimum sentence of 30 years. That’s more appropriate for knowingly dropping a child into a toxic waste dump.