Erica Knoll

October 31, 2005

17 years old

It was the day after Halloween when Erica Knoll's body was found by her sister in the bedroom of their home in Bowie, Md. Beside her lay a can of Dust-Off computer spray, which Erica had "huffed," or inhaled, to get high.

David Manlove, 16, of Indianapolis, took his last breath four years ago after he inhaled a generic computer duster. Manlove inhaled the substance through a straw while underwater in a pool because it was supposed to intensify the high.

Jimmy Smith died at 17. He had been inhaling butane that powered a hand torch he used to make computers in the garage of his Avon Lake, Ohio, home.

Alarming trend

Such deaths are part of an alarming trend among American teens who are searching for the easiest and cheapest way to get high.

While computer cleaners like Dust-Off may be the inhalant of choice, experts say more than 1,000 household products can be used to get high sometimes to deadly effect.

Huffing isn't new, of course. In the 1960s, teens looking for a cheap high sniffed glue, and so-called inhalant abuse climbed steadily. Inhalant abuse peaked in 1995, when the Partnership for a Drug-Free America began an advertising campaign to educate parents on the dangers of huffing. For the next seven years inhalant abuse declined, until a recent upswing.

Nearly one in five U.S. children have abused inhalants by the eighth grade, according to a 2004 survey conducted by the University of Michigan. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta lists inhalants as the second most commonly used drug by youths, after marijuana.

Word spreads

What's more, technology is fueling the surge in huffing. With instant messaging and text messaging, new ways to get high can "spread like wildfire" among kids, according to Chris Cathcart, president of the Consumer Specialty Products Association.

That may explain the popularity of Dust-Off, whose sales to minors have been restricted by mass-market retailers like Wal-Mart.

Dust-Off "is a very safe product under normal circumstances," said Phil Lapin,owner of Falcon Safety Products in Branchburg, N.J., the product's manufacturer.

"We don't think statistically our product is any more abused than any other," he said, criticizing the sales restriction.

In fact, the chemical propellant used in Dust-Off is common in the aerosol industry, and Dust-Off represents less than 1 percent of the aerosol industry's annual domestic sales of 3.5 billion units.

Because products from Reddi-wip to Wite-Out correction fluid are accessible and cheap, they serve as an entry-level drug for kids who later gain access to marijuana or cocaine, said Dr. Lloyd Johnston, lead researcher of the University of Michigan survey.

Death resulting

About 125 kids die from huffing each year, according to Harvey Weiss, executive director of the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition.

"The real number is probably larger, because many inhalant deaths go unrecognized," he said. Manlove, the teen who died while huffing in a pool, for example, was listed as drowning on the coroner's report, according to his father.

Most huffing deaths result from a lack of oxygen flow to the brain, a type of suffocation, doctors say, which can afflict even first-time users.

"It's really Russian roulette," said Dr. Maher Karam-Hage, an addiction-treatment expert at the University of Michigan.

"Kids are going after the knockout sort of experience," he said.

Huffing produces a fleeting high — typically 10 to 15 seconds. So kids repeatedly inhale to keep the high going.

"That's the danger of huffing," said Karam-Hage. "The lungs deliver the chemicals to the brain so quickly." Unlike alcohol, in which impairment comes gradually, it's difficult to know how much you can tolerate with huffing, he said.

Health issues

Health hazards for huffing survivors also are alarming and often not fully understood by users or their parents.

"A long-term abuser can literally end up with holes in the brain," said Karam-Hage, while some become trapped in a permanent psychosis or experience chronic paranoid hallucinations.

More commonly, though, chronic inhalant abusers experience memory and attention problems, as well as damage to organs like the heart, liver and kidneys.

Diane Stem of Old Hickory, Tenn., lost her son Ricky, 16, to huffing in 1996. "My husband and I were caught completely off guard" by his death, she said.

Ricky, an all-state baseball pitcher for Friendship Christian High School, had no history of drug use and was the youngest of Stem's 10 children.

"Ricky was from a very close family," Stem said. "He was a leader in the church youth group. Of course we warned our kids of the dangers of drugs, but we didn't know anything about huffing."

To Stem, Ricky's death should be a warning to all Americans. Huffing is a hidden killer that can devastate "any family, in any walk of life," she said. Ricky died from inhaling Freon he extracted from the family's air conditioner.

"I hear it over and over and over again," she said. "Kids from good homes die from huffing, and parents say they didn't know to warn them because they didn't know about huffing.

"You can't get away from this, " she added. "These products kids abuse are everywhere. They're products that make our lives easier."

Tell-tale signs

David Manlove's mother, Marissa, said she cautions parents to watch for danger signs in their teens' behavior.

"When cleaning products start showing up in a teen's bedroom, you should be suspicious, " she said. "Or if you smell air freshener, they might either be huffing the freshener or using it to disguise other smells. "

Medical experts say red eyes and sudden changes in temper are also telltale signs of huffing.

Jimmy Smith, the Ohio teen who died from huffing butane fuel, was a very intelligent kid who talked about becoming a priest, his father, Jim, said.

"He didn't use any drugs that we were aware of. He didn't smoke, he didn't drink, " he said.

"There's so many products that can be abused, " he added. ''What are you going to do? All you can do is minimize the risk by talking about it.

In fact, parental warnings have shown to have a huge impact. The White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy cites studies showing kids are 50 percent less likely to try inhalants if parents warn them of the dangers.

Parental involvement is critical, said Weiss of the National Inhalant Prevent Coalition, because many teens might see Dust-Off as "just canned air " and underestimate its harmfulness.

"A much stronger approach is to describe the products as poisons, not drugs, " Weiss said. "It's real easy to talk to kids about poisons. 'Would you drink a can of gasoline?' you can ask them. Because that's what huffing is like. "

By BOB WAGNER Columbia News Service

Dust Off-Inhalent abuse