Facts About Inhalants
By Suzanne Kane
Inhalants are second only to marijuana among adolescents, according to TheAntiDrug (www.theantidrug.com), and all kids are at risk. Because inhalants are readily available, cheap, and easy to conceal and cause an instant “high,” people continue to use them, especially young people.
According to the Monitoring the Future, 2007 report, use of inhalants has increased on a continual basis among 10th graders for the past six years. The 20th Annual Teen Study from The Partnership for a Drug-Free America shows that pre-teen and teen use of inhalants remains steady at 11 percent (for past-year use), while a troubling 66 percent believe that “snuffing or huffing things to get high can kill you.” The report urges continued vigilance as attitudes toward inhalants weaken, thus increasing their use.
There is a correlation between the early use of inhalants and subsequent delinquency, substance abuse and other problems later in life, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). A report issued by the NDUH in 2008 also shows a link between depression and use of inhalants.
What inhalants are
Inhalants are chemical vapors that product mind-altering, or psychoactive, effects when breathed into the human body. They have different effects, but inhalants fall into three broad categories: aerosols, gases and volatile solvents.
• Aerosols – These are sprays that contain propellants and solvents, including hair spray, deodorant spray, spray paint, spray-on fabric protector, and vegetable oil spray
• Gases – These may be used as medical anesthetics (anesthesia, such as ether, chloroform, halothane and nitrous oxide) or be in household and commercial products such as butane lighters, cans of whipping cream, propane tanks and refrigerator gases
• Volatile solvents – These are liquids that vaporize at room temperature and are found in the following: some industrial and household products including contact cement, degreaser, dry-cleaning fluid, nail polish remover and paint thinner; and some supplies for art or the office, including felt tip marker fluid, electronic contact cleaner and correction fluid.
Common street names
On the street, inhalants are called a variety of names, depending on the substances (chemical vapors) inhaled. These include: bold (nitrites), laughing gas (nitrous oxide), poppers (amyl nitrite and butyl nitrite), rush (nitrites), snappers (amyl nitrite), and whippets (fluorinated hydrocarbon, like you find in a can of whipped cream).
How to identify inhalants
Many common household and workplace products contain substances that can be inhaled. These include some cleaning fluids, paints, glues and gasoline.
How inhalants are used
Users breathe inhalants through the nose or mouth in several ways. They may choose to:
• Inhale from nitrous oxide-filled balloons
• Huff from an inhalant-soaked rag they stick in their mouths
• Sniff or snort fumes from containers
• Sniff or inhale fumes from substances that are first sprayed or placed into plastic or paper bags, a process known as “bagging”
• Spray aerosols directly into the mouth or nose
Effects of the inhalants
Intoxication only lasts for a few minutes, so users often inhale or use repeatedly over several hours in order to make the effects last longer. The initial effects occur as the lungs rapidly absorb the chemicals into the bloodstream and distribute them to the brain and throughout the body. Users feel high almost instantaneously. Similar to alcohol, users may experience slurred speech, dizziness, delusions, euphoria, and lack of coordination, lightheadedness, and even hallucinations.
Repeated inhalation causes many users to feel a loss of control and inhibitions. Others may have a lingering headache or feel drowsy.
Why inhalants are bad for you
The fatty tissues in the brain and central nervous system serve as a dumping ground for many of the chemicals in inhalants. Some chemicals leave the body immediately, but it’s the ones that linger that cause the lasting negative effects. Myelin, one of these fatty tissues and a protective covering that surrounds nerve fibers (neurons) and helps carry messages back and forth to the brain, can be damaged by accumulated chemicals. Long-term inhalant use can result in spasms and tremors, and even cause permanent difficulty in talking, walking and bending. These symptoms are similar to those of multiple sclerosis.
Inhalants also cause the brain cells to become damaged when it doesn’t receive enough oxygen, a condition known as brain hypoxia. The damage depends on the part of the brain affected. If the hippocampus, which helps control memory, becomes damaged, a person may find it hard to learn something new or even to carry on a conversation. Planning and solving complex problems may be compromised if the cerebral cortex is damaged. A person whose cerebellum has been affected can start to move slow or be clumsy.
Other serious or potentially lethal effects of inhalants include:
• Aplastic anemia (where the bone marrow is unable to produce blood cells)
• Blackouts
• Choking death
• Damage to liver, kidneys and heart
• Fatal injury from accidents, including car crashes
• Polyneuropathy, a permanent change or malfunction of the peripheral nerves
• Spinal cord damage
• Sudden sniffing death – heart failure causing death within minutes – associated with abuse of butane, chemicals and propane in aerosols
• Suffocation death
Addicting?
Many people, particularly teens, don’t think of inhalants as addicting. After all, these are in products you find around the house. But those who use, and abuse, inhalants repeatedly and for a long time, say they have a “strong need” to continue using them. There is also some evidence, as shown in recent animal studies on toluene, that it affects the dopamine reward effect like that in amphetamine use. When long-term use disrupts this dopamine system, addiction becomes more likely.
When users stop taking inhalants, they may experience mild withdrawal symptoms.
