Inhalant abuse is growing problem
By: Judy Shepps Battle
Last September, 15-year-old Charles Gray inhaled Freon a chemical used as a coolant in an attempt to get high. The young Floridian reportedly had experimented once before with this chemical, but he’d had no problem.
This time he died.
Sudden sniffing death syndrome is the technical name for the cause of Charles’ death. It is the very real risk taken when huffing a form of inhalant abuse in which fumes or vapors are inhaled through the mouth to get a quick high.
Every year more than 4.5 percent of youths between 12 and 17 years take this risk, according to a recently released government report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
That’s 1.1 million kids.
The stereotypical image of a huffer is a young male who sniffs chemicals that have been sprayed on his shirt sleeve, who inhales nitrous oxide from a whippet (used in products like aerosol whipped cream), or who like Charles inhales fumes from an old air conditioning unit.
This picture, however, is no longer accurate.
Girls huff too
According to the SAMHSA report, almost 5 percent of girls between the ages of 12 and 17 used inhalants to get high in 2005, compared to 4.2 percent of boys. For girls, this is an increase from 4.1 percent in 2002; the rate for boys did not increase over the same three-year period.
SAMHSA also reports important gender differences in the choice of huffing chemical.
Girls who huff are more likely than boys to use such items as glue, shoe polish, aerosol cleaning products, aerosol sprays (including hair spray), spray paint, and correction fluid to get high. Boys are more likely to use whippets or gas from cigarette lighters, such as butane, according to SAMHSA.
Girls are more likely to begin huffing at a younger age than their male peers, said SAMHSA.
This new information makes it imperative that inhalant abuse prevention efforts address our sons and our daughters, whether those prevention efforts are at home or in school.
Cheap and available
Huffable substances are legal, cheap, easily available and difficult to detect when used. Sniffing these chemicals, however, can produce heart failure and death within moments. Perhaps most alarming, there is no way a user can gauge how much substance enters the body.
Any incident of huffing is a fatality waiting to happen.
Signs of abuse
In addition to providing a buzz, huffing can produce serious side effects.
Initially, the young user may experience nausea, fatigue, bad breath, coughing, nosebleeds, loss of appetite, and/or shaky coordination. Heart and breathing rates may decrease, and judgment may become impaired. Coma, brain damage, and cardiac arrhythmia also are potential dangers.
Signs of chronic inhalant abuse include:
Unusual breath odor or chemical smell from clothes;
A dizzy or drunk appearance;
Slurred speech or disoriented thinking;
Red eyes or a chronic runny nose;
Sudden mood changes;
Intense irritability
Dispelling myths
Successful prevention of inhalant abuse by our young people involves the entire community. Parents, schools and businesses must be partners in this effort.
First, the myth of huffing as primarily a male phenomenon must be challenged. Parental conversations and school-based prevention programs must be rected at the particular vulnerabilities of both girls and boys, and all adults must learn the key signs of inhalant abuse in kids.
It is not enough to include inhalant abuse as a chapter in a drug prevention curriculum or a health education class. We need to use the media music, TV, movies, billboards to present the painful and potentially permanent effects caused by huffing common household substances.
Retailers must also be educated regarding underage purchase of these products. Just as sellers had to be taught to be suspicious of minors who purchased cigarettes, sales of multiple cans of air fresheners and other huffable products need to be regarded with the same level of concern.
Finally, although it is understandably hard for parents and teachers to see otherwise goal-
oriented and achieving youngsters as potential huffers, we must dispel the myth that good students are immune from experimenting with huffing.
The simple truth is that huffing can be attractive to any of our young people. To close our eyes against that attraction could be a fatal mistake.
Judy Shepps Battle is a New Jersey resident, addictions specialist, consultant and freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected]. Additional information can be found at her Web site at www.writeaction.com and from the National Inhalants Prevention Coalition information at www.inhalants.org.

