1.1 Million Kids Huffed Household Products Even Though It Can Be Fatal

Almost five percent of girls between the ages of 12 and 17 used inhalants to get high in 2005, an increase from 4.1 percent in 2002, while boys remained fairly constant with 4.2 percent reporting use in 2005. Together, the data show that an estimated 1.1 million adolescents used inhalants in the past year, even though huffing these common household substances can be fatal. The data was unveiled last week by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) at a press conference by the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition to kick off the 15th Annual National Inhalants & Poisons Awareness Week (NIPAW).

Inhalants are common household products such as shoe polish, glue, aerosol air fresheners, hair sprays, nail polish, paint solvents, degreasers, gasoline or lighter fluids. Youngsters intentionally inhale these substances to get high. Some suffer “Sudden Sniffing Death” and others become addicted to inhalants. The new federal report, Patterns and Trends in Inhalant Use by Adolescent Males and Females: 2002-2005, notes that overall, the number of adolescents who first used an inhalant to get high in the past year remained stable from 2002 to 2005, with 591,000 youth initiating use of inhalants in 2002 and 605,000 beginning to use inhalants in 2005. This breaks down to 306,000 males beginning use in 2002 and 268,000 in 2005. In 2002 approximately 285,000 females began use of inhalants, while 337,000 initiated use in 2005.

“When we think about a young person huffing, a vision comes to mind of a young boy hiding in his room, secretly huffing. Or so I thought! However, when it comes to huffing at the youngest ages, more girls than boys are misusing common household products to get a fast, inexpensive, temporary ‘high.’ Among new inhalant initiates, girls start huffing at a much earlier age than boys,” noted Harvey Weiss, executive director of the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition. “This means that parents, health care professionals and educators must start talking with pre-teen girls about the dangers of inhalants before it is too late.”

The SAMHSA report notes differences in the substances of choice among recent inhalant initiates. Use of nitrous oxides or whippets (used in products like spray whipped cream) among new users declined from 31.6 percent in 2002 to 21.3 percent in 2005, while use of aerosol sprays other than spray paint more than doubled from 12.6 percent in 2002 to 25.4 percent in 2005. The rate of use of nitrous oxide or whippets among male recent initiates declined from 40.2 percent in 2002 to 26.4 percent in 2005. The rate of use of these products remained stable for female initiates.

Use of other aerosol sprays among those who recently started using inhalants increased for both males (10.9 percent in 2002 to 19.3 percent in 2005) and females (14.3 percent in 2002 to 30.2 percent in 2005).

Officials stressed the importance of education—especially to middle school youth—of the serious health risks of inhalant abuse, noting that some young people who turn to inhalants may not be aware of the dangers posed by inhalants.

NIDA’s Monitoring the Future Study shows that eighth graders have abused inhalants at a higher rate than tenth or twelfth graders every year from 1991 to 2006. NIDA research also indicates that those who first begin using inhalants at an early age are more likely to become dependent on them—and that long-term inhalant abusers are among the most difficult drug abuse patients to treat.

“Store-owners, educators, medical professionals, parents, and especially young people enrolled in middle school and high school need to be aware of the dangers of misusing inhalants. Due to the fact that inhalants are generally legal, cheap, and available, young people are more at risk for inhalant misuse, and the dangers associated with that misuse, including brain damage, organ failure, cardiac arrest, convulsions, deafness, impaired vision, impaired motor skills, and loss of judgment,” said Dr. Bertha Madras, Deputy Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The SAMHSA report, which combined four years of data from 2002-2005 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health, found that 30.5 percent of recent inhalant initiates used glue, shoe polish or toluene in the past year. Female recent initiates were more likely than their male counterparts to have used glue, shoe polish or toluene (34.9 percent vs. 25.8 percent). They were also more likely to use other aerosol sprays, including aerosol cleaning products such as computer dusters or furniture polish; air fresheners; and aerosol hair sprays, 23.0 percent for female recent initiates vs.16.4 percent for their male counterparts. Female new initiates also were more likely to have used spray paint, 26.1 percent vs. 20.8 percent.

Boys who began using inhalants recently were more likely to experiment with nitrous oxide or whippets, 29 percent for males vs. 19.3 percent for females, according to the four years of data.

The fifteenth National Inhalants and Poisons Week is observed March 18 through 25. National Inhalants Prevention Coalition information is available on the web at www.inhalants.org. SAMHSA’s data is available at www.oas.samhsa.gov. NIDA inhalants findings are at www.inhalants.drugabuse.gov.