Inhalants

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Inhalants

• are badmm-kay?
• www.inhalants.org

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What are Inhalants?

• A variety of common chemicals that are poisonous
  when inhaled.
• Paints, thinners, glues, solvents, fuels, and
  other toxic gases and liquids.
• Intentionally inhaling these poisons is often
  referred to as Huffing.

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Inhalant effects

• Because inhalants kill brain cells very quickly,
  they cause dizziness, and reduced inhibitions,
  much like the effects of ALCOHOL, also an organic
  solvent.
• But inhalants are also known to be very
  unpredictable in the body.

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Inhalant effects

• Deep breathing of the toxic vapors may result in
  losing touch with ones surroundings, a loss of
  self-control, violent behavior, nausea,
  unconsciousness, giddiness, loss of inhibition,
  loss of appetite, and, at higher doses,
  hallucinations. Inhalants can cause loss of motor
  skills, slurred speech, heart palpitations,
  seizures, nausea and vomiting.

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Signs of use

• Signs of inhalant abuse include "huffers rash"
  or drying and redness around the mouth and nose,
  spots or sores around the mouth and red or runny
  eyes or nose. However, these findings are very
  uncommon even in chronic inhalant abusers. More
  common ones are paint or stains on the body or
  clothing chemical breath odor drunk, dazed, or
  dizzy appearance an unexplained collection of
  abusable products anxiety, excitability, and
  irritability.

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Inhalants can kill you

• Sudden sniffing death syndrome is usually caused
  by the irregular heart rate induced by inhalants.

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Other dangers

• Additional inhalant dangers are suffocation
  (e.g., from bagging), fire-related injuries from
  inhalant combustion (especially if the inhalant
  is heated or a cigarette is lit in a closed area
  where the inhalant is being abused), and
  accidents related to impaired judgment, lack of
  motor skills, or high-risk behavior.
• Chronic inhalant abuse can damage the brain, the
  heart, lungs, kidney, liver, and peripheral
  nerves.

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Brain Damage

• Continued, chronic inhalant abuse has been
  associated with neurological damage. People who
  abuse inhalants chronically have demonstrated a
  range of mental dysfunction, from mild cognitive
  impairment (e.g., lack of concentration or
  attention, poor memory, and poor learning skills)
  to severe. In some instances these effects are
  permanent while in others they resolve after a
  long period of abstinence. Personality disorders,
  particularly antisocial personality, violent
  behavior, and depression, have been associated
  with inhalant abuse.

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Risk Factor

• The 2005 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study
  (PATS) surveyed more than 7,200 teenagers and
  1,200 parents (margin of error /- 1.5 percent).
  Top-line findings on inhalants from this year's
  nationally projectable tracking study¹ show
• One in five teenagers (20 percent), or 4.7
  million teenagers nationally, report abusing
  inhalants in their lifetime. 
• 64 percent of teenagers in 2005 agree strongly
  that inhalants can kill you, down 19 percent from
  2001.
• 77 percent of teenagers in 2005 agree strongly
  that inhalants can cause brain damage, down nine
  percent from 2001.

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National Institute on Drug Abusewww.drugabuse.gov

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Dont vaporize your brain!