It has been called America's silent epidemic. Known by such street names as huffing, sniffing and wanging, the dangerous habit of getting high by inhaling the fumes of common household products is estimated to claim the lives of more than 1,000 children each year. Many other young people, including some first-time users, are left with serious respiratory problems and permanent brain damage.
"Surveys show that approximately one out of every five American children will experiment with inhalants before they complete eighth grade," said Matthew O. Howard, Ph.D., an assistant professor of social work and the author of two recently published studies on inhalant abuse among children.
Despite national efforts to warn of the dangers, information about the terrible toll inhalant abuse is inflicting does not seem to be reaching the nation's parents, much less their children.
"I don't think these kids have any idea how dangerous inhaling these substances can be," Howard said. "One or two kids in a group will experiment with something and before you know it, you have a mini-epidemic on your hands. Some kids just don't get the message until a friend ends up dead or in the hospital. Parents need to know that hundreds of items commonly found in the home are being inhaled by kids seeking a quick buzz, a high that can easily turn deadly."
Inhalant use has joined alcohol and marijuana as one of the top three drugs of choice among grade-school children. The National Adolescent Student Health Survey found that 21 percent of eighth graders reported having tried inhalants, compared with only 15 percent for marijuana and 5 percent for cocaine. The most common age of first inhalant use is just before a child's 12th birthday.
Howard's studies, which focus on juveniles on probation in Utah and on American Indian youths living in Seattle, found surprising differences in the frequencies of inhalant use. His research, which was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, is published in the British journal Addiction and the American journal Addictive Behaviors.
In the Utah study, more than a third of the children on probation reported some history of inhalant use, with nearly 20 percent having abused inhalants in the last year. And while inhalant abuse is known to be rampant on some American Indian reservations, only 12.3 percent of Indian youths living in urban Seattle reported any experience with inhalants, a rate considerably lower than the national average.
The variance is not as surprising as it might seem, Howard said, because inhalant abuse tends to occur in isolated pockets. Much like the latest teen craze in clothes or music, inhalant abuse often establishes a toehold among a small group of users and then spreads like wildfire within a community, steadily increasing in popularity until the fad fizzles or something tragic happens.
Howard, who teaches courses on drug abuse at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, said that inhalant abuse is a huge problem not only in the United States, but also overseas. Inhalant abuse is common among young people in Britian and Japan and is especially popular among poor children in the developing countries of Asia and Latin America. Recent reports estimate that more than 20 million Central and South American youths abuse inhalants on a regular basis.
Despite widespread inhalant use and its serious consequences, Howard is surprised that the issue receives relatively little attention from the anti-drug abuse establishment. Even among drug abuse experts there is often little expertise or knowledge about inhalant abuse, said Howard, who is one of the few scholars in the nation doing research on the issue.
National research agencies offer relatively few grants for the study of inhalant abuse, and many questions remain unanswered. Not much is known, for instance, about how some inhalants act on the body and whether or not these substances are physically addictive.
What is known, at least anecdotally, is that inhalant abuse can cause serious and potentially irreversible damage to the brain, bone marrow, liver and kidneys. More than 1,000 common household products are known to be abused by inhalers, including everything from typewriter correction fluid to colored markers. Other commonly abused inhalants are gasoline, spray paint, model glue, air fresheners and the propellant from empty pressurized spray cans, including those for whipped cream and hair sprays.
Most inhalants produce a brief dizzying high similar in some ways to alcohol, but side effects can include violent behavior, hallucinations, convulsions, drowsiness and loss of consciousness. Inhalants are known to sensitize the heart, sometimes causing death from cardiac arrest or suffocation.
"Inhalants are among the most common and the earliest drugs used by children," Howard said. "Sadly, they also are one of the leading causes of drug abuse deaths among adolescents."
Howard contends, however, that research is beginning to shed light on techniques that can be used to identify and diagnose the symptoms of inhalant abuse in clinical and counseling situations.
"If we can develop tools to reliably assess inhalant abuse, it will be an important step forward in our effort to diagnose and help people suffering from this disorder."
In the meantime, he cautions parents to be alert to the unexplained presence of cans or tubes of commercial products containing volatile solvents and to recognize slurred speech, uncoordinated gait, disoriented behavior, and glue or other substances on the breath as possible signs of inhalant abuse.
