Risky

by Carolyn Tytler

Created on: February 03, 2010

At 5:30 one morning, Kyle's mom, a registered nurse, went to wake her son before leaving for work. The 14-year-old was sitting up in bed with his legs crossed and his head down.  "He's teasing me again," she thought. "He's pretending that he's too tired to get up."

She called him again. When he didn't move, she went over to shake his arm. When she touched him, Kyle fell over. She looked down in shocked horror at his chalk-white face, his open, vacant eyes. The straw from a can of Dust-Off protruded from his lips. The can itself was in his hands, Kyle was dead.

Dust-Off is a compressed gas in an aerosol can intended to clean dust from a computer keyboard. It is one of the products teens are inhaling to get a quick, cheap high. "Dusting" is  a variant of  the inhalant abuse known as huffing. It results in a sense of euphoria and dizziness which lasts about ten seconds.

Young people don't recognize the danger. Many potentially hazardous products have been around the house for as long as they can remember. They are not restricted in any way. The stores sell them freely, parents or school authorities have not warned against them. The teens believe they are inhaling odourless, non-toxic, compressed air.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Dust-Off contains a  gas which is heavier than air.  When inhaled, it keeps oxygen from being absorbed by the lungs, heart, and brain . This results in the dizziness. The product also contains a coolant and a propellant. They can cause paralysis, permanent brain damage and cardiac arrest.

Kyle had complained of a sore tongue several days before his death. In retrospect, it is believed that he had suffered frost-bite from the coolant in Dust-Off. It can be imagined how this substance affects delicate lung tissue.

Kids pass the knowledge of these dangerous practices from one to the other. The average age of those indulging in "dusting" is between 9 and 15 years. Parents need to be alert to the unexplained presence of  any spray can in their child's room.

Other products commonly found in any normal household can also be used for inhalant abuse: spray deodorant, whipping cream in a spray can, or furniture polish. 

Kyle's case is unique in illustrating how ignorance on a parent's part, even a supposedly well-informed parent, can have deadly consequences.  Besides his mother being a medical professional,  his dad is a police officer, who had never heard of "dusting".  Also part of the household was a retired K-9 pet, trained to sniff out illegal drugs. None of the above had the slightest suspicion of  Kyle's dangerous practice. 

Almost every contemporary home has a computer, and every school is well-equipped with computer labs. Many classrooms contain one or more machines for students' individual use and for group projects. Where there is a computer, there may be a can of "Dust-Off" nearby.

Parents need to be aware of the danger Dust-Off and other common household products in aerosol cans represent, and to make their children aware of the possible deadly results of inhaling their gases.

The story of Kyle is true. It may be checked out at the following website:

http://www.snopes.co m/medical/toxins/dus toff.asp

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