Inhalant Abuse: Air Conditioner Units

Did you know that someone can get high from your air conditioning unit, huffing the freon straight out of the units? Air Conditioner (AC) repairmen are kept busy. "We've had several customers that after doing a job, found out it was leaking again after we had fixed it again," said David Rampey, Air Assurance VP in the Tulsa, Oklahoma office. "Came back, couldn't find a leak anywhere, and afterwards discovered on a security camera that somebody was actually coming over and sniffing it at night."

The problem is that people really don't realize how dangerous this really is. Huffing freon is similar to huffing gasoline. And so are the dangers. This method of getting high isn't anything new. It's just another mechanism to prevent the body from getting oxygen, producing a "high" effect even though the chemicals can irritate the mouth, throat and lungs.

 

One of the hidden surprise hazards for kids is that you can get frostbite through the inhalation, any of the tissues... the nose the mouth and the face. Huffing Freon, even once, can cause short and long term damage to the brain including memory and behavioral problems. The problem is people don't realize that there is a chance and risk of death.

Taking freon from an air conditioning unit is considered theft. But there is a simple way to freeze freon thieves in their tracks. A lock.

"The access to the refrigerant there is like a tire," he said. "You just unscrew the cap, press the button so to speak and get the refrigerant out of it so a locking cap, and they can't do that."

You can buy a lock at a heat and air company. They cost between $20 and $30.

Inhalant Abuse: Aerosols

Inhalants are substances that are sniffed or huffed to give the user an immediate rush, or high. They include glues, paint thinners, dry cleaning fluids, gasoline, felt-tip marker fluid, hair spray, deodorants, spray paint, and whipped cream dispensers.

How inhalants are used:

These are inhaled directly from the container (called sniffing or snorting), from a plastic bag (called bagging), or by holding an inhalant-soaked rag in the mouth (called huffing).

 

Facts about Inhalants:

Concentrated amounts of chemicals from paint and gas can directly induce heart failure and death. Long term effects of chronic abuse include brain, liver, and kidney damage.

Chronic inhalant abusers may permanently lose the ability to perform everyday functions like walking, talking, and thinking.

Research shows that inhalant use is associated with symptoms of depression. Research has shown that depressed teens are more than three times as likely to start using inhalants than teens with no symptoms of depression.

Slang names

• Aimies
• Air blast
• Ames
• Bagging
• Bang
• Bolt
• Boppers
• Bullet
• Buzz Bomb
• Chroming
• Glading
• Gluey
• Heart-on
• Highball
• Hippie crack
• Honey oil
• Huff
• Laughing gas

Signs of Inhalant Abuse:

If you suspect that a patient or victim has been using inhalants you can look for these signs:

• Chemical Smell on Clothing
• Coughing
• Dilated Pupils
• Drunk, Dizzy, or Dazed Appearance
• Extreme anger, Agitation, and Irritability
• Exhaustion
• Facial ashes and Blisters
• Frequent Vomiting
• Hallucinations and Illusions
• Loss of Appetite
• Mood Swings
• Paint stains on body or face
• Red Eyes
• Runny Nose
• Slurred Speech
• Unusual breath odor

Inhalants affect your brain, because they affect your brain with much greater speed and force than many other substances, they can cause irreversible physical and mental damage before you know what happened.

 

Inhalants Affect The Heart:

 Inhalants starve the body of oxygen and force the heart to beat irregularly and more rapidly -- that can be dangerous for your body. Inhalants damage other parts of your body. People who use inhalants can experience nausea and nosebleeds; develop liver, lung, and kidney problems; and lose their sense of hearing or smell. Chronic use can lead to muscle wasting and reduced muscle tone and strength.

Inhalants Can Cause Sudden Death:

Inhalants can kill you instantly. Inhalant users can die by suffocation, choking on their vomit, or having a heart attack.

Within seconds of inhalation, the user experiences intoxication along with other effects similar to those produced by alcohol. These "alcohol-like" effects may include:  

• dizziness
• confusion and delirium
• delusions
• hallucinations
• Inability to coordinate movements
• lightheadedness  
• nausea and vomiting are other common side effects
• slurred speech 

These products and other strong-smelling items are being abused by children and teenagers around the world because they are readily available and inexpensive. These and a thousand other everyday household products are abused by kids to get a quick high. Most kids think these products are harmless, but they are not. The reality is that hundreds of children each year die from inhalant use, sometimes on their first try.

Although many parents are appropriately concerned about illicit drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and LSD, they often ignore the dangers posed to their children from common household products that contain volatile solvents or aerosols. Products such as glues, nail polish remover, lighter fluid, spray paints, deodorant and hair sprays, whipped cream canisters, and cleaning fluids are widely available yet far from innocuous. Many young people inhale the vapors from these sources in search of quick intoxication without being aware that using inhalants, even once, can have serious health consequences. National surveys indicate that nearly 22.3 million Americans have used inhalants at least once in their lives. NIDA’s Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey reveals that 14.9 percent of 8th-graders have used inhalants. Parents and children need to know that even sporadic or single episodes of inhalant abuse can be extremely dangerous. Inhalants can disrupt heart rhythms and cause death from cardiac arrest, or lower oxygen levels enough to cause suffocation. Regular abuse of these substances can result in serious harm to vital organs, including the brain, heart, kidneys, and liver.

Through scientific research, we have learned much about the nature and extent of inhalant abuse, its pharmacology, and its consequences. This research has brought the picture of inhalant abuse in the Nation into focus and pointed to the dangers and the warning signs for parents, educators, and clinicians. We hope this compilation of the latest scientific information will help alert readers to inhalant abuse and its harmful effects and aid efforts to deal with this problem effectively.

What Are Inhalants?

Inhalants are volatile substances that produce chemical vapors that can be inhaled to induce a psychoactive, or mind-altering, effect. Although other abused substances can be inhaled, the term “inhalants” is used to describe a variety of substances whose main common characteristic is that they are rarely, if ever, taken by any route other than inhalation.

This definition encompasses a broad range of chemicals that may have different pharmacological effects and are found in hundreds of different products. As a result, precise categorization of inhalants is difficult.

One classification system lists (4) four general categories of inhalants based on the forms in which they are often found in household, industrial, and medical products.

1. Aerosols are sprays that contain propellants and solvents. They include spray paints, deodorant and hair sprays, vegetable oil sprays for cooking, and fabric protector sprays.

2. Gases include medical anesthetics as well as gases used in household or commercial products. Medical anesthetics include ether, chloroform, halothane, and nitrous oxide (commonly called “laughing gas”).

Nitrous oxide is the most abused of these gases and can be found in whipped cream dispensers and products that boost octane levels in racing cars. Other household or commercial products containing gases include butane lighters, propane tanks, and refrigerants.

3. Nitrites often are considered a special class of inhalants. Unlike most other inhalants, which act directly on the central nervous system (CNS), nitrites act primarily to dilate blood vessels and relax the muscles. While other inhalants are used to alter mood, nitrites are used primarily as sexual enhancers.

Nitrites include cyclohexyl nitrite, isoamyl (amyl) nitrite, and isobutyl (butyl) nitrite and are commonly known as “poppers” or “snappers.”

Amyl nitrite is used in certain diagnostic procedures and was prescribed in the past to treat some patients for heart pain. Nitrites now are prohibited by the Consumer Product Safety Commission but can still be found, sold in small bottles labeled as “video head cleaner,” “room odorizer,” “leather cleaner,” or “liquid aroma.”

4. Volatile solvents are liquids that vaporize at room temperature. They are found in a multitude of inexpensive, easily available products used for common household and industrial purposes. These include paint thinners and removers, dry-cleaning fluids, degreasers, gasoline, glues, correction fluids, and felt-tip markers.

Generally, inhalant abusers will abuse any available substance. However, effects produced by individual inhalants vary, and some users will go out of their way to obtain their favorite inhalant. For example, in certain parts of the country, “Texas shoeshine,” a shoe-shining spray containing the chemical toluene, is a local favorite.

How Are Inhalants Used?

Inhalants can be breathed in through the nose or the mouth in a variety of ways, such as:

“bagging” which is sniffing or inhaling fumes from substances sprayed or deposited inside a plastic or paper bag

“huffing” from an inhalant soaked rag stuffed in the mouth or inhaling from balloons filled with nitrous oxide

“sniffing” or “snorting” fumes from containers spraying aerosols directly into the nose or mouth

Commonly Abused Inhalants and Their Affects

Evidence from animal studies suggests that a number of commonly abused volatile solvents and anesthetic gases have neurobehavioral effects and mechanisms of action similar to those produced by CNS depressants, which include alcohol and medications such as sedatives and anesthetics. A 2007 animal study indicates that toluene, a solvent found in many commonly abused inhalants including:

• model airplane glue
• paint sprays
• paint and nail
• polish removers

All of these common product have the ability to activate the brain’s dopamine system. The dopamine system has been shown to play a role in the rewarding effects of nearly all drugs of abuse. Inhaled chemicals are absorbed rapidly into the bloodstream through the lungs and are quickly distributed to the brain and other organs. 

 

 

Within seconds of inhalation, the user experiences intoxication along with other effects similar to those produced by alcohol. Alcohol-like effects may include slurred speech; the inability to coordinate movements; euphoria; and dizziness. In addition, users may experience lightheadedness, hallucinations, and delusions.

Because intoxication lasts only a few minutes, abusers frequently seek to prolong the high by inhaling repeatedly over the course of several hours, which is a very dangerous practice. With successive inhalations, abusers can suffer loss of consciousness and possibly even death. At the least, they will feel less inhibited and less in control. After heavy use of inhalants, abusers may feel drowsy for several hours and experience a lingering headache.

How Do Inhalants Produce Their Effects?

Many brain systems may be involved in the anesthetic, intoxicating, and reinforcing effects of different inhalants. Nearly all abused inhalants (other than nitrites) produce a pleasurable effect by depressing the CNS. Nitrites, in contrast, dilate and relax blood vessels rather than act as anesthetic agents.

How Can Inhalant Abuse Be Recognized?

Early identification and intervention are the best ways to stop inhalant abuse before it causes serious health consequences. Parents, educators, family physicians, and other health care practitioners should be alert to the following signs:

• Chemical odors on breath or clothing

• Paint or other stains on face, hands, or clothes

• Hidden empty spray paint or solvent containers, and chemical-soaked rags or clothing

• Drunk or disoriented appearance

• Slurred speech

• Nausea or loss of appetite

• Inattentiveness, lack of coordination, irritability, and depression

What Are the Other Medical Consequences of Inhalant Abuse?

Inhalant abusers risk an array of other devastating medical consequences.

The highly concentrated chemicals in solvents or aerosol sprays can induce irregular and rapid heart rhythms and lead to fatal heart failure within minutes of a session of prolonged sniffing. This syndrome, known as “sudden sniffing death,” can result from a single session of inhalant use by an otherwise healthy young person. Sudden sniffing death is associated particularly with the abuse of butane, propane, and chemicals in aerosols. Inhalant abuse also can cause death by —

• asphyxiation — from repeated inhalations that lead to high concentrations of inhaled fumes, which displace available oxygen in the lungs;

• suffocation — from blocking air from entering the lungs when inhaling fumes from a plastic bag placed over the head;

• convulsions or seizures — from abnormal electrical discharges in the brain;

• coma — from the brain shutting down all but the most vital functions;

• choking — from inhalation of vomit after inhalant use; or

• fatal injury — from accidents, including motor vehicle fatalities, suffered while intoxicated. Based on independent studies performed over a 10-year period in three different states, the number of inhalant-related fatalities in the United States is approximately 100–200 per year. Animal and human research shows that most inhalants are extremely toxic. Perhaps the most significant toxic effect of chronic exposure to inhalants is widespread and long-lasting damage to the brain and other parts of the nervous system.

Hazards of Chemicals Found in Commonly Abused Inhalants amyl nitrite, butyl nitrite

(“poppers,” “video head cleaner”) sudden sniffing death syndrome, suppressed immunologic function, injury to red blood cells (interfering with oxygen supply to vital tissues)

benzene

(found in gasoline) bone marrow injury, impaired immunologic function, increased risk of leukemia, reproductive system toxicity

butane, propane

(found in lighter fluid, hair and paint sprays) sudden sniffing death syndrome via cardiac effects, serious burn injuries (because of flammability)

freon

(used as a refrigerant and aerosol propellant) sudden sniffing death syndrome, respiratory obstruction and death (from sudden cooling/cold injury to airways), liver damage

methylene chloride

(found in paint thinners and removers, degreasers) reduction of oxygen-carrying capacity of blood, changes to the heart muscle and heartbeat

nitrous oxide (“laughing gas”), hexane

death from lack of oxygen to the brain, altered perception and motor coordination, loss of sensation, limb spasms, blackouts caused by blood pressure changes, depression of heart muscle functioning

toluene

(found in gasoline, paint thinners and removers, correction fluid) brain damage (loss of brain tissue mass, impaired cognition, gait disturbance, loss of coordination, loss of equilibrium, limb spasms, hearing and vision loss), liver and kidney damage

trichloroethylene

(found in spot removers, degreasers) sudden sniffing death syndrome, cirrhosis of the liver, reproductive complications, hearing and vision damage

Glossary

Anesthetic: An agent that causes insensitivity to pain and is used for surgeries and other medical procedures.

Central nervous system: The brain and spinal cord.

Dementia: A condition of deteriorated mental function.

Dopamine: A brain chemical, classified as a neurotransmitter, found in regions of the brain that regulate movement, emotion, motivation, and pleasure.

Naphthalene: Volatile, active ingredient in mothballs.

Toxic: Causing temporary or permanent effects detrimental to the functioning of a body organ or group of organs.

Withdrawal: Symptoms that occur after chronic use of a drug is reduced abruptly or stopped.

NIDA Web Sites

• drugabuse.gov
• inhalants.drugabuse.gov
• steroidabuse.gov
• clubdrugs.gov
• backtoschool.drugabuse.gov
• teens.drugabuse.gov

Other Web Sites

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: www.cdc.gov
• National Inhalant Prevention Coalition: www.inhalants.org
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Health Information Network: www.samhsa.gov/shin

Update: New Dust-Off® Formula Deters Inhalant Abuse

Falcon Safety Products®, manufacturer of the Dust Off® brand of consumer electronics cleaning products, today introduced a new version of its industry leading Dust-Off compressed-gas duster. While entirely safe when used as directed, compressed-gas dusters are one of many aerosol products too often abused by young adults searching for a cheap and sometimes deadly high. In an attempt to discourage this dangerous practice of inhalant abuse, Falcon developed a new formulation for its dusters, incorporating an additive that makes the contents of the can extremely unpalatable to those who attempt to abuse them.