Anybody Know Anything About Dust Off Killing Kids?

[ChiciB1]

Just got an email from someone telling me about a policeman's kid who died because he was "huffing" Dust Off. I've never heard of Dust Off, but it does exist... something to clean your computer with. But the email stated that it was the new "in" drug for kids 9-15 years old!

[rocktivity]

1. Dust off is compressed air

It comes in an aerosol can, and it blasts air through a thin straw to blow dust out of computers and cameras. I suppose there are kids out there who are nutty enough to try to inhale it.

:scared:
rocknation

[TAPat]

2. According to Snopes.com

True ---> http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/dustoff.asp

[ChiciB1]

6. Holey Moley!! And I Thought It Was Just A Rumor!

I've been through hell with my own son, but his drug is Meth! What will they think of next? Our family is completely fractured over what happened and I no longer have a relationship with my son because even though we tried for a very long time to help him and get him help, he isn't able to comprehend why we had to let him go it alone.

I still think we need some serious serious attention paid to the Meth Epidemic and now we get this stuff!

[Tunkamerica]

14. huffing won't replace meth

it's a 10 sec "high" at best and it's not even a real high. Just kind of light headedness mixed with throbbing and general weird feelings.

Huffing is for kids who don't know any better and couldn't get the real drugs if they tried.

[Berry Cool]

16. Which is part of why it's so dangerous.

It doesn't require kids to break the law. It doesn't require them to get someone older to buy them the stuff. It doesn't require bravery in the getting. It doesn't take a lot of money. It's easy to obtain with no age requirement or prescription, and no doubt that leads many kids to think it's harmless ("they would never make it so easy to get if it was that bad"). And it's just a "little" high. It's not like being some strung-out junkie who lives for his fix. Right? I mean, you don't even have to deal with "bad people" to get it.

So, some innocent little kid who would never be caught dead talking to a drug dealer or one of the "bad kids" in school thinks, hey, everyone thinks I'm a nerd because I won't do drugs or drink, but I could do this and just see how it feels. Maybe then the other kids wouldn't think I was such a goody two-shoes.

Or, maybe, they're just curious. "Oh, come on, this can't really get you high." So they try it to see.

[ChiciB1]

18. Well The Kid Died!

And I'm sure it won't replace Meth... I KNOW that! It's everywhere. I've learned more in the last 18 months than I EVER wanted to know. And I keep running into people who either have a family member or co-worker or somebody they know that Meth has ruined.

I just went to see my Orthopedic doctor Friday and he told about his last girlfriend and one of his employees who lost everything too! My son and his wife lost everything themselves, including their families! My son is in the county jail right now, his wife got 18 months of probation! They got REALLY light sentences, but the jail is over-flowing so since there is NO Rehab that doesn't cost thousands of dollars, it just keeps growing!

But we MUST focus on the War on Terra!!

I want my country back!!!!

[TAPat]

21. Chici - I feel for you...

I had to cut my brother out of my life about 15 years ago - meth, alchol, etc.
He's been in and out of rehab for years... It's impossible to imagine what it would be like for a parent.

My thoughts go out to you and your family :hug:

[leftchick]

3. Abusers 'huffing' canned air

an article from today....

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060910/NEWS0103/609100383/-1/CINCI

ERLANGER - You don't have to find a dealer to get it, you can go to an office supply store. But when it's not cleaning a computer keyboard, it can be used to get high.

Known as canned air or air dusters, it's intended as a cleaning tool but has also become the key element for a new type of huffing that has made its way to the region.

An urgent bulletin went out to 1,800 Ohioans who work with children a year ago alerting them to prepare for a spike in cases of adolescents inhaling compressed gas.


The products are typically used to clean keyboards and cost about $9.

"There is a misconception that it is just canned air," said Earl Siegel, co-director of the Drug and Poison Information Center of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "That isn't the case."

[niyad]

4. question: if it is more than "just canned air", WHAT is it, and if it is

toxic, wouldn't it be presenting a danger to anyone actually using it to clean their computers? or am I misunderstanding something here?

[Tunkamerica]

i think it's the propellant

that gives the high, same reason kids huff everything.

[Purveyor]

7. The can of Fellows "Air Duster" I have contains Difluoroethane

and its warning label lists it as flammable.

Most of the can contains warning/caution text including the web address: www.inhalants.org

[rocktivity]

8. The chemicals that produce the air when you spray it might be toxic

Here's what it says on the can of High Mark Compressed Gas Duster that I have:

WARNING: KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN. INTENTIONAL MISUSE BY DELIBERATELY CONCENTRATING AND/OR INHALING CONTENTS MAY BE FATAL...Contains tetraflouroethane.

:headbang:
rocknation

[niyad]

12. thanks to all who answered me--I don't use anything like that, don't use

anything aerosol.

[leftchick]

13. from the article

The cans contain refrigerants like dichlorofluoromethane and tetrafluoroethane

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. I caught my little ones doing that to each other. They got an earful from

me, to be sure.

[Purveyor]

9. I was having trouble finding the stuff at our local big box store as

they were always out of stock.

I after I read the report on kids huffing the stuff, I figured that was the reason.

[Berry Cool]

10. It's sad but true. Also, I understand some very young kids are into

playing something called "the choking game" where they try to choke each other just shy of making the victim pass out. Sheesh.

It's best to keep an open line of communication with your kids and ask them some probing questions to find out exactly what it is that their friends or other kids they meet consider "fun." That way you can get a line on what to warn them about. And hope they'll listen.

on edit: It's not a bad idea to warn kids that they shouldn't smell too deeply ANY chemical product just because it makes them feel good to do so--be it Dust-Off, Liquid Paper, whatever. Hell, I think gasoline smells good. The aroma is very seductive. But I'm not going to stand over a gas can and breathe deeply. That would be extremely bad.

[Tunkamerica]

11. i know that this isn't new.

this was around when i was in highschool 10-15 years ago. I had two friends in college who huffed all sorts of stuff when they were in highschool. One had blisters all around her mouth from huffing propane out of neighbors grills, the other stopped breathing one morning while he was waiting for school to start from huffing duster. His brother revived him. Both quit when they got older, but who knows what permanent damage it did. I look at where their lives are right now and wonder if anything would be different if they'd never started huffing.

[Berry Cool]

15. They probably have permanent brain damage.

Yet another reason not to huff and to warn your kids about it. Should they survive the experience, they probably won't have a whole lot of healthy brain cells left.

[Tunkamerica]

19. well...

...i don't know if i would say they have brain damage, you would never know fromspeaking with them or even knowing them well. But maybe it did affect their judgement or decision making abilities. And believe me, both did their share of real drugs later. But how much their huffing phase affected the rest of their life no one will know.


Oh, another story. I worked with a guy when I was in highschool ( he was in his twenties) that had worked at a garage and huffed the nitrous that they had there. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that the nitrous in garages is not "clean" nitrous and has all sorts of heavy metals from engines floating around in it. He told me, and I don't know how true this is, that his doctor told him he can't ever do another drug for fear of activating? dislodging? the heavy metals in his system from his year of huffing automotive nitrous.

[JVS]

17. It'll fuck you up

[oldlady]

20. can kill during use & brain function loss in long run

some kids were huffing on some steps of our local middle school. A teacher caught sight of them, gave a shout and the two boys took off running. The accelerated heart rate & raised blood pressure already in place caused one of the obys to drop dead of a heart attack while running across the field. My husband has kids at work who were former huffers, now tied into chairs to remain upright and wearing diapers, drooling and non-communicative at age 22. Yeah. It'll hurt you.