Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Wayne E. Smith / The Detroit News Manufacturers of keyboard cleaners put warnings on the cans about the dangers of inhalation, and some have started adding bitter-tasting chemicals to discourage abuse.

Parenting

Latest way for kids to get high: 'dusting'

Huffing a keyboard cleaner poses health risks and can even be deadly

By Melissa Dahl / Sacramento Bee

Fox Searchlight Pictures "Dusting" was dramatized in a scene from the 2003 movie "Thirteen," where 13-year-olds Evie (Nikki Reed), left, and Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood) take turns inhaling a computer keyboard cleaner and slapping each other back to consciousness. Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

You've heard it all before -- many teens are using household products to get high, and they're starting younger and younger. But despite the barrage of media reports on the subject, many parents report they'd never heard of the problem, until it was too late.

That's why counselor Jon Daily has been spreading the word about teens and inhalants, specifically the trend called "dusting," a form of huffing involving computer cleaner. The practice has become so prevalent that some stores have restricted sales of the product to people ages 18 and older.

Daily's main concern is that parents know what they're dealing with and what to do. Here are some signs that may indicate abuse of the product:

• Disappearance of computer cleaner at a rate that doesn't correlate with the cleanliness of your keyboard.

• Large stashes of the product in your child's room.

• Strange chemical smells on or around your child.

• Dazed looks or bloodshot eyes.

• Numbness around tongue, vocal cords or throat.

Many teens believe using a product such as Dust-Off is safe because it's so accessible. But inhalant abuse can cause damage to the brain, lungs, heart, kidneys and liver -- and, in the worst cases, death. Once inhaled, the chemicals can trigger irregular heart rhythms, which can lead to fatal cardiac arrest in even the youngest and healthiest of hearts.

Though the risks of dusting are staggering, Daily and other experts fear the bigger picture may become lost when the focus zeroes in on one specific trend.

"You're going to have a really hard time finding a kid who's exclusively dusting," says Daily, who has been interviewed by several media outlets on dusting, including CNN and the "Today" show. "The name of the drug is an illusion. Once they're busted for one drug, they move on to another."

Teens start experimenting with inhalants well before they try other forms of drugs, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The survey found that last year the largest rise in teenage drug use occurred with inhalants.

Harvey Weiss, director of the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition, echoes Daily's fear of losing the big picture of teenage drug use.

"As we focus on particular products or brands, we forget that there are other things out there," Weiss says. "(Parents) really need to know that there are thousands of products out there that can be abused."

Teens aren't hooked on specific products. They're hooked on the chemicals that create intoxication, Daily says, and if one product becomes unavailable, they'll simply move on to the next.

Weiss urges parents to talk to their children about the dangers of inhalant abuse at a young age, at the same time they talk about poison.

"Things come in vogue and they become popular," says Weiss, pointing out the home page of his organization's Web site, www.inhalants.org. Created a few years ago, the page features a young boy and a bottle of correction fluid, because sniffing products such as Wite-Out was popular at the time. If he were to redesign the Web site now, Weiss says, he probably would feature a can of Dust-Off.