Yet Boudreau says research shows that as kids get older, inhalant use drops dramatically.'Kids perceive that this is a kiddy drug.” “Kids are looking for acceptance with the behavior,” she says. “Perception is key here,” she says.'The perception among kids is that huffing is not dangerous.”īoudreau says kids may look for other ways to get high after they have experimented with huffing. However, Boudreau says most kids don’t realize how much of a threat inhalants pose. Kids may develop permanent memory loss and respiratory problems and long-term use can even lead to mental retardation. The damage happens fast and can’t be reversed, she says. “The kids get this fuzzy, floaty feeling,” says Jocelyn Boudreau, staff educator coordinator at Rosecrance Health Network in Rockford, a not-for-profit substance abuse treatment center for kids ages 12 to 18.Īnd although the effects of inhalants usually pass pretty quickly, Boudreau says the major problem is what happens to kids’ brains. Williams, from East Cleveland, Ohio, was in Chicago helping spread the word that cheap, household items and everyday products are leading to addiction, permanent brain damage and death for many kids like Kyle. Huffing, also known as bagging or sniffing, now has the attention of the Alliance for Consumer Education, which recently launched the Illinois Inhalant Abuse Prevention Program to educate parents about the abuse. “The high that you get is disorientation,” says Harvey Weiss, executive director of the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition. Other studies, including one completed by the Monitoring the Future study, show that more than 4 million kids have used inhalants and that one in five kids has experimented with inhalants by their eighth-grade year. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Percent of girls between 12 and 17 and 4.2 percent of boys-or about 1.1 million adolescents-admitted huffing common household products, according to a study from the U.S. Like Kyle’s parents, hundreds of unsuspecting families across the country are affected by inhalant abuse that can kill in a single breath.

His parents-Jeff Williams, a police officer, and Kathy Williams, a nurse-blame themselves for missing the warning sings that Kyle, 14, had been huffing the compressed air in the Dust-Off for a quick-yet fleeting-high. She playfully tried to shake him awake only to find her nightmare just beginning. The red straw from a can of Dust-Off was still near Kyle Williams’ mouth when his mom found him one morning.

Huffing keyboard cleaner