TOXICS INFORMATION PROJECT (TIP)
P.O. Box 40572, Providence, RI 02940
Tel. 401-351-9193, E-Mail: TIP@toxicsinfo.org
Website: www.toxicsinfo.org
(Lighting the Way to Less Toxic Living)
FAMILY WATCH LIBRARY
www.familywatch.org
Inhalant Abuse: The Silent Epidemic
Published: Monday, March 1, 1999
Author: Meki Cox, Source: Associated Press
MEDIA, Pa. (AP) -- Five best friends gather to make a high school health video
about the dangers of smoking and drugs. Ten days later, the girls are killed
when their car plows into a utility pole. In the bloodstreams of four,
including the driver, are traces of a chemical named difluoroethane. Inside the
crumpled car, troopers find a can of "Duster II," a spray used to clean computer
keyboards. Its ingredients include difluoroethane. The coroner's findings put
the teens on a list of 240 people who have died from "huffing" inhalants since
1996, according to the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition.
The parents of the girls remain stunned. Last week, they released a statement
disputing the findings and suggesting their daughters might have inhaled "the
airborne agent" unintentionally. But studies and doctors who treat teen-agers
say their subjects tell them that huffing, also called "sniffing" or "wanging,"
is the easiest high to get and far easier to conceal than the rush from alcohol,
marijuana or tobacco. It's cheap. It's intense. There are no dealers, no
pipes, no needles, no track marks. Some teens paint their fingernails with
typewriter correction fluid then sniff their fingers all day. Some soak their
sleeves in solvent and sniff away, with no one the wiser.
Wade Heiss' preferred means was sniffing air freshener in the back room of his
house in Bakersfield, Calif. Two days before Christmas 1995, his older brother
caught him in the act. Wade was startled. Moments later, he fell to the floor.
His heart had stopped. Wade was dead at age 12. "Yeah, I heard about this
huffing," says Dr. Richard Heiss, Wade's father, a family practitioner. "But
even I didn't know the effects of it and I'm a medical doctor. Nobody's telling
parents about it. Why isn't someone screaming and yelling about this?"
Studies rank huffing fourth among all forms of substance abuse by teens. And
what many teens and parents don't realize is that huffing can kill, even the
first time, says Harvey Weiss, founder of theNational Inhalant Prevention
Coalition in Austin, Texas.
More than 1,000 products containing "euphoriant" inhalants are widely available,
including vegetable cooking spray and deodorant, Weiss says, and the number of
easy-to-get chemicals to sniff is growing and changing with time. "I call it a
silent epidemic," Weiss says. "Right now, there's barely any public awareness
out there. And in the young person's mind, how can they think this is dangerous
if they're not told? They think it's just household stuff."
Most inhalants produce their effects by depressing the central nervous system
and slowing the heart, sometimes to an irregular beat. If a user becomes
anxious or frightened, the resultant adrenaline release can kick the heart into
even more inefficient rhythms, to the point that blood and oxygen no longer
reach the brain. "In a few minutes, someone who seems to be doing fine can be
dead," says Earl Siegel, a Cincinnati pharmacist with expertise in inhalant
abuse. "People are unfamiliar with how dangerous and prevalent it is."
A federal study of users age 12 through adulthood estimated that new users of
inhalants in 1997 had increased to 805,000, from 380,000 in 1991. The study, by
the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the Department
of Health and Human Services, said most new users were aged 12-17. According to
Weiss, seventh- and eighth-graders are the most common users among all teens.
The study called for a broad educational push to cut into those numbers.
Congress is considering a bill to designate the week of March 22 as National
Inhalants and Poisons Awareness Week. And SC Johnson, whose Glade air freshener
has been an object of inhalant abuse, in October joined with Deloris Jordan,
mother of basketball star Michael Jordan, in a campaign to increase awareness.
It distributes educational videos to schools, hospitals, drug counselors and
social workers.
Delaware County coroner Dimitri Contostavlos said he hoped to raise awareness by
releasing toxicology reports on the girls killed in the Jan. 29 car accident.
Loren Wells, Rebecca Weirich and Shaena Grigaitis, all 16; and Tracy Graham and
Rachael Lehr, both 17 -- juniors at a high school 10 miles outside of
Philadelphia -- were returning from shopping for prom dresses when their car
swerved out of control. The posted speed limit on the twisty, half-mile stretch
of road that locals call "Dead Man's Curve" because of numerous accidents is 55
mph. Investigators say the teens' car, driven by Miss Wells, was traveling at
66-88 mph when it hit the pole. The can of "Duster II" was found in the car two
days later. "No one ever suspected these girls (of inhalant abuse)," Trooper
Joseph McCunney says. "I think this might finally shake a few teen-agers' trees
and make them afraid about it.
There's nothing more final than death," says Dr. Anthony Acquavella, director
of adolescent medicine at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in
Philadelphia. He recounts talking with teens who have sworn they didn't abuse
inhalants even as Wite-Out pens, for correcting typewritten errors, fell out of
their pockets. "Why would anyone need Wite-Out these days?" he asks. "No one
has typewriters at home anymore.