HEALTHIs your patient (or child) abusing inhalants?Statistics indicate that "sniffing" and "huffing" continue to be a silent, sometimes deadly, epidemic among teens and preteens.By Stephanie Stapleton, AMNews staff. April 9, 2001. Washington -- An unusual odor on a child's breath or clothing; spots or sores around the mouth; nausea or loss of appetite; slurred or disoriented speech; drunk, dazed or dizzy appearance; red or runny eyes or nose. These symptoms are associated with what substance abuse experts consider to be a silent epidemic: the use by children of common household products as inhalants. It is a public health problem that remains off the radar of many parents and doctors. "Inhalant abuse has for so long been ignored," said H. Westley Clark, MD, MPH, director of the Dept. of Health and Human Services Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. Hundreds of everyday items -- from glue, nail polish and gasoline to computer cleaner, refrigerants and air fresheners -- can be used by kids to get a quick high by sniffing directly from an open container or "huffing" from a rag soaked in the substance and held to the face. Inhalants are the most popular recreational drug among 12-year-olds, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's most recent National Household Survey. In addition, almost half a million young people use inhalants in any given month. According to the survey, there were an estimated 991,000 new inhalant users in 1998, up from 390,000 in 1990. Although these young people view inhalants as harmless fun, they can take a serious toll, causing brain, respiratory, liver, kidney and bone marrow damage as well as short-term memory loss and hearing impairment. In the worst-case scenario, inhalants can cause sudden death, and there is no way to tell which child will succumb or how many sniffing sessions it will take. And, statistics indicate, those who do not suffer illness may go on to try other drugs.
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Copyright 2001 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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