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Sucking the Life From Your Child
The Dangers of Inhalants
By Sue Marquette Poremba
Inhalants are divided into four categories:
- Volatile solvents – Include items such as nail polish remover, lighter fluids, paint thinner, cleaning products, correction fluid, felt-tip markers and gasoline.
- Aerosols – Iinclude items such as hair spray, spray paint, computer duster and anything that comes from an aerosol can.
- Gases – Include helium, nitrous oxide (laughing gas), freon, ether, butane and chloroform.
- Nitrites – Include the chemicals cyclohexyl nitrite, amyl nitrite and butyl nitrite. Amyl nitrite is a prescription drug to treat angina. The nitrites are sealed in capsules and are "popped" to release the vapors and are referred to as "poppers" in street lingo.
"Nitrous oxide (laughing gas) seems to be the most widely-used inhalant at this time," says Ty Ridenour, a research associate in Penn State University's Prevention Research Center. "People seem to prefer the effect that nitrous oxide has on them, and they do not have to worry about getting things like spray paint on themselves. Another reason that nitrous oxide seems to be used is that it often can be purchased at raves already inside of a balloon or from 'head shops' in ready-to-use canisters."
Computer duster is also popular, Ridenour says, because its effects mimic nitrous, and it is inexpensive.
How do kids inhale the compressed air used to clean computer equipment (also known as computer duster)? They put the straw that is supposed to blow air from between the keyboard keys into their mouth and inhale. Items with strong fumes are easy to sniff from containers, like markers or glue. Soaking a rag and stuffing it into one's mouth is known as huffing. Some inhalant abusers will spray an aerosol can contents directly into their mouth or nose, or they'll do what is called "bagging," spraying a substance into a plastic or paper bag and inhaling. Another popular way to inhale is to fill a balloo and inhale, similar to the popular sucking helium.
