'Dusting' is the new killer high for teens
Canned air is the new cheap inhalant, but it can cause severe damage and even death.
NBC News correspondent Peter Alexander reports
By Peter Alexander
NBC News correspondent
TODAY
updated 11:15 p.m. CT, Tues., July 26, 2005
There's a new way to get high, and you could have it right next to your desk at home.
They're designed to clean your computer but, if inhaled, these popular products have the potential to kill.
It’s called "dusting" — the term comes from the cleaning brand "Dust Off" — and it has become a teenager’s new cheap and easily accessible high, despite a warning on the side of each canister.
This form of inhalant abuse, “huffing,” has been around for years, but dusting is the more specific term associated with the use of cans of any common aerosolized computer keyboard cleaner that contains compressed gas.
The high from the gas paralyzes the user for several minutes and gives a feeling of euphoria. Both dusting and huffing can result in damage to the brain, lungs, heart, kidneys and liver, and can cause death. In computer cleaning products, a freon type of gas, or fluorinated hydrocarbon, is the dangerous ingredient.
"Sudden sniffing death" describes the process of inhaled hydrocarbons provoking irregular heart rhythms in the victim, which leads to sudden fatal cardiac arrest in even very young and healthy hearts.
Some retailers, like Staples and Wal-Mart, now restrict the sales of computer cleaners to buyers over 18 years of age, and many have placed warning labels on the top of cans.
But Jeff Williams, a Cleveland police officer whose son Kyle tragically died in March while trying dusting, thinks more needs to be done. Williams says there is already one keyboard cleaning product on the market that adds a bitter smell and taste to the chemicals, making them unpalatable, and he says all manufacturers should do the same. Williams also thinks that retailers need to do a better job of policing who they sell to.
Dusting is part of a larger problem involving inhalants, with huffing on the rise. In 2002, more than a million people abused them for the first time — the vast majority in their teens.
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that inhalant experimentation is initiated earlier than any other illicit substance, with young females starting before young males. Also, a higher percentage of 12 and 13 year olds had used inhalants than marijuana.
Inhalant abuse is often more dangerous and difficult to detect than other drug abuse. Inhalants such as glue, lighter fluid and spray paint are completely legal and found in every home — which often leads kids to think they are harmless — and abusers need to conceal only the act of inhaling, not the product.
But inhalants are addictive physically and psychologically, almost as much as alcohol.
The warning signs of dusting are not easily detected, but these signs may indicate abuse:
1-Disappearance of the product at a rapid rate
2-Empty cans or containers of chemicals in trash cans
3-Large stashes of a chemical product in the child’s room
4-Strange smells on or around a child
5-Residue of the product on a child's clothing or face
6-Complaints of numbness of the tongue, vocal chords or throat
7-Dazed looks or bloodshot eyes
Wolfe suggests that if parents suspect inhalant abuse, they should take their child for a drug and alcohol assessment before it is too late.
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