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If your child decides to experiment with drugs, that first "high" might not come from marijuana or cocaine. It might be something totally unsuspected, such as the can of paint thinner in your garage or the bottle of correction fluid on your desk.
Abuse of common household products, often called "huffing" or inhalant abuse, is common among teens. The peak age for using inhalants is 14-15, with children as young as 5 or 6 years of age abusing household substances to get high. It is now as common as marijuana with young people. By 12th grade, it's estimated that 11.1 percent of students have used inhalants, according to University of Michigan's annual Monitoring the Future study.
Because spray paint, rubber glue, paint thinner, solvents and household cleaners are far more accessible and inexpensive than illegal drugs, they are more likely to be abused by children and teens 12 to 17, particularly males, than by any other age group, said Harvey Weiss, executive director of the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition (NIPC).
Young, white males have the highest inhalant abuse rates. "Kids can get it at home, at school, almost anyplace. They can use them almost anyplace. A child does not have to go to a pusher to get the stuff. Kids are generally uninformed about the dangers, and parents and educators don't talk about them," Weiss said.
Generally, inhalants are the first substance that children abuse, and kids who huff are more likely to later try illicit drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin, health experts say. Children who are pressured by friends to get high or who live in dysfunctional families where substance abuse and violence are common often are more willing to experiment with inhalants, a survey of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) found.
Parents should be alert
There are more than 1,000 products that are dangerous when inhaled. Children can use a cloth, or a paper or plastic bag to inhale fumes from one or more of these sources:
- Solvents, such as paint thinners, spray paints, gasoline, glues, correction fluids, felt-tip-marker fluid and electronic contact cleaner.
- Gases from butane lighters or propane tanks and whipped cream aerosols or dispensers (called whippets). Refrigerant gases, spray paints, medical anesthetic gases such as nitrous oxide or ether, and hair, deodorant and fabric protector sprays also are used.
- Nitrites, such as amyl nitrite (sold as Poppers or Snappers) and butyl nitrite (sold as Rush, Locker Room, Bolt, Climax or Video Head Cleaner).
If you suspect your child is huffing, here are suggestions from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, University of Michigan Health System and the AAP on what to look for:
- Odors of the inhalant on clothing or breath
- Stains from paint or other substances on the face, body or clothing
- Changes in behavior (anxious, excitable, irritable, depressed)
- Spots or sores around the mouth
- Drunkenness, trouble walking, dazed or glassy-eyed appearance
- Loss of appetite and weight loss
- Unusual number of bottles or cans in his or her bedroom, or in unusual places (under the bed, for example)
- Poor performance in school
Consequences can be fatal
Your child's first "huff" could be the last breath. When a user is suddenly startled during a huffing episode, the sudden surge of epinephrine combined with the effects of the inhaled chemicals can lead to fatal cardiac arrhythmia, a condition called sudden sniffing death syndrome, the AAP said.
Suffocation from a plastic bag used to inhale fumes, aspiration and drowning, falls and other reckless behavior done while on these chemicals are other common causes of death. "Using inhalants is like playing Russian roulette. Any time you use it, you can die," Weiss said.
The cheap "high" from sniffing chemicals lasts only a few minutes, so chronic users can often do prolonged huffing episodes. Health dangers linked to chronic inhalation of chemicals include:
- Brain damage, which can lead to personality changes, impaired memory, hallucinations, loss of coordination and difficulty walking, slurred speech and vision problems
- Hearing loss from trichloroethylene (used in cleaning and correction fluids) or toluene (found in spray paints and glues)
- Numbness, tingling or spasms caused by hexane (found in gasoline and glues) or nitrous oxide (whippets or gas cylinders)
- Reduced muscle tone and strength
- Blood oxygen depletion caused by nitrites (Poppers or Rush) and methylene chloride found in paint thinners and varnishes. It can cause blackouts.
- Bone marrow damage from benzene, a known cancer-causing agent used in gasoline
- Liver and kidney damage caused by toluene
If addicted, users can suffer withdrawal symptoms. This might include hallucinations, nausea, excessive sweating, hand tremors, muscle cramps, headaches, chills and delirium.
What to do
If your child is huffing, remain calm and seek help. Becoming agitated could cause the huffer to become violent, have hallucinations or suffer a heart problem which could cause sudden death. Instead, make sure the room is well ventilated and call 911. If your child is not breathing, give him or her CPR. Once your child has recovered, seek professional treatment and counseling. Inhalant users have a high rate of relapse.
Educating parents and children about the dangers of sniffing chemicals is the most effective prevention tool. Talking to your children about inhalants when they are 7, 8 or 9 years old is not too early. Weiss said kids even can be told that inhaling chemical fumes is dangerous when they first learn about the dangers of ingesting household poisons at age 3 or 4.
"Parents who contact me say, 'Harvey, I talked to my child about everything, but the one thing I thought my child would never do is inhalants.' That is the most crucial thing - to talk to your children, to recognize that your child can do this and needs to be protected from it. Kids are less likely to do it if their parents talk to them about it".
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This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.
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