Abuse of Chemical Fumes Often Overlooked by Parents
March 23, 2000
By Joan Lippert
NEW YORK (APBnews.com) -- Did you know that your home and garage
contains dozens of products -- such as oven cleaner, felt-tip pens,
nail polish remover and paint thinner -- that can give you a buzz if
inhaled?
Surveys suggest that your children, or at least some of their
friends, know all about "huffing," "bagging" or "sniffing," slang
for abusing inhalants. But what they might not know is how dangerous
it is.
Even baby boomers who partied through the 1960s may be unaware of
this form of substance abuse. "Parents are clueless," said Catherine
Foehrkolb, whose 15-year-old son, Pete, died from huffing in 1996.
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For students after eighth grade, inhaling chemical
inhalants is the fourth most common means of getting
high. It ranks right after alcohol, tobacco and marijuana. Surveys
show that one in four children either huffs or knows someone who
does. And the users include both "troubled" and "good" youths alike.
Kitchen and bathroom cabinets contain dozens of common products
that are dangerous when inhaled. They include cooking spray,
disinfectants, furniture polish and wax, hair spray, nail polish
remover, oven cleaner and spray deodorant. Other items include
butane, gasoline, glues and adhesives, paint and paint thinner and
rust remover.
This week, to increase awareness of this "hidden" drug abuse, the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration sponsored
its seventh annual National Inhalants & Poisons Awareness Week.
Cuts across class barriers
What's the profile of the typical huffer? "There isn't one," said
Harvey Weiss, executive director of the National Inhalant Prevention
Coalition (NIPC).
Children as young as 6 have been caught huffing, and "it cuts
across all racial and social boundaries," he said.
That was the case with Pete Foehrkolb, who had a high IQ, had
been raised in a religious household and was described as a
bookworm. His mother found him on the floor of his room; the autopsy
report listed "butane inhalation" as the cause of death.
Catherine Foehrkolb had known her son was smoking cigarettes, but
later she learned he and his friends also had tried inhalants a
couple of times. Foehrkolb now devotes her life to raising
consciousness about inhalant abuse. "Make no assumptions about your
child," she advises parents.
Younger teens using heavily
Monitoring the Future, a survey tracking teen drug, alcohol and
cigarette use since 1975, found that far fewer children habitually
huff than smoke pot. But it's the younger ones who are doing it.
While the percentage of youths using marijuana increased as they got
older (16.5 percent of eighth-graders, 32.1 percent of 10th-graders
and 37.8 percent of 12th-graders) the pattern was reversed for
inhalants (10.3 percent of eighth-graders, 7.2 percent of
10th-graders and 5.6 percent of 12th-graders), the study found.
"They're the only class of drug where the younger teens are using
more heavily than older ones," said the University of Michigan's
Lloyd Johnston, principal investigator of the survey, based on
nearly 45,000 teenagers at 433 schools across the country.
"Inhalants aren't illegal substances, they're inexpensive, and if
somebody catches you with a bottle of nail polish remover, it's not
like being caught with a marijuana joint in your hand. For all those
reasons, inhalants are one of the first psychoactive drugs kids
try," Johnston said.
Abuse linked to 'behavioral' problems
A study of children in alternative schools showed different
results. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study
tracked 8,918 students enrolled in 115 alternative high schools as
they failed, dropped out or were expelled from regular high school
for illegal activity or behavioral problems.
The survey found that the proportion of youths who huffed
remained steady from ninth grade through 12th grade (the range was
29.0 to 30.6).
Overall, the CDC reported that more than one in four (27.3
percent) of the troubled teens they surveyed huffed.
An American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) study of 600 children
from 10 to 17 years old in regular schools found similar results. In
this survey, one in four respondents had friends who huffed -- and
more than half of those friends huffed at least once a month.
"All forms of substance use with a psychoactive effect are highly
correlated with other forms of problem behavior, such as
delinquency, cutting school or not doing well academically," said
Johnston.
"Of course, some youngsters who try inhalants don't have [these]
behavioral problems, but kids who do are more likely to try them."
Law enforcement difficult
According to the NIPC, 37 states regulate the sale to minors of
products that can be huffed. Massachusetts requires retailers to ask
for ID on glue or rubber cement purchases and maintain a log of
these sales for the police to view at any time. In 19 states,
huffers can be fined, or subject to jail time or mandatory
treatment.
"Some substances, like airplane glue, that have gotten a lot of
press are probably monitored a little more closely, but it's hard to
draft law, because there are so many different kinds of inhalants,"
said Dr. Dan Levy, a Maryland pediatrician.
For that reason, Levy believes, public education campaigns may be
more effective than laws.
Inhalant abuse poses special problems for law enforcement,
because the substances are readily available and cheap -- even free.
A user can carry a plastic bag into a store, spray the product of
choice into it and leave the spray can on the shelf. "They don't
have to worry about paying for it or getting caught shoplifting,"
the NIPC's Weiss said.
The damage it can do
Children like huffing for its disorienting lift. At first, the
user feels uninhibited and sometimes, euphoric. Next, the speech may
slur and the child may stagger.
While there is no data suggesting that inhalant abuse leads to
other kinds of substance abuse, "experiencing an altered state and
enjoying it can lead to other substances," said Catherine McDonald,
a member of the AAP's Committee on Substance Abuse.
But inhalant use might be habit-forming -- going cold turkey can
cause shaking hands, nervousness, sweating and constant headaches,
Levy said.
But not stopping is worse. The long-term huffer can lose
concentration, short-term memory and hearing, and can suffer from
muscle spasms and permanent brain damage, according to the AAP.
It also can be fatal. National statistics on huffing fatalities
are not available, in part because "these are sudden, unexpected
deaths -- typically an irregular heartbeat," said Dr. Edward A.
Jacobs, associate clinical professor of pediatrics at Children's
Hospital and Medical Center in Seattle.
"When you autopsy these, you won't know why they died, unless you
knew they were huffing," he said.
Huffers also can suffocate (either when inhaling from a plastic
bag, or because solvent gases may arrest breathing); be seriously
burned (if someone lights a match near a flammable inhalant);
injured (huffing induces risk-taking behavior); or commit suicide
(coming down from a high may cause depression), according to the
AAP.
First step: Get informed
Considering how ubiquitous inhalants are, parents are faced with
the dilemma of how to stop their children from even considering
huffing.
First, parents need to get informed and talk to their children.
According to the AAP, only 56 percent of children have talked about
inhalants with their parents.
Inhalant education can start as early as age 3 or 4, Jacobs said.
He suggests an indirect approach at first -- "what's appropriate and
what's not, [such as] only taking medicines when your parent gives
it to you, not accepting substances from strangers."
As children get older, parents might say, "'See these things we
have around the house? They look ordinary, but if you use them the
wrong way, they can kill you,'" pediatrician Levy said. He added
that adolescents "may be especially moved by the fact that 30
percent of deaths [occur with] first-timers."
Watch for 'signs'
Since it's impractical to rid a house of all substances that
could be huffed, parents need to be attuned to the telltale signs of
inhalant abuse: a chemical smell on the breath or clothing; sores or
spots around the mouth; paint or stains on the body or clothing; a
drunk, dazed or glassy-eyed look; loss of appetite; anxiety;
excitability and irritability.
"Your first line of approach can be taking the kid to
pediatrician, who will be fairly familiar with the family," McDonald
said. Social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists may also help
find an appropriate treatment program.
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