Help Educate Your Community about the Dangers of Inhalant Use During National Inhalants and Poisons Awareness Week

Mark your calendars for National Inhalants and Poisons Awareness Week (NIPAW), observed March 18 – 24. NIPAW is an opportunity to raise awareness of the dangers of inhalants and to get your community engaged on this issue. This year celebrates the 20th anniversary of the event.

NIPAW is designed to mobilize people and communities in a public health campaign to reduce and prevent instances of experimentation with or misuse of common household, school and office products and chemicals.

One in five students in America has used an inhalant to get high by the time he or she reaches the eighth grade. Parents don't know that inhalants, cheap, legal and accessible products, are as popular among middle school students as marijuana. Even fewer know the deadly effects the poisons in these products have on the brain and body when they are inhaled or "huffed." Both dusting and huffing can result in damage to the brain, lungs, heart, kidneys and liver, and can cause “sudden sniffing” death. Experts say death can happen even the first time someone huffs.

Some common products abused as inhalants include model airplane glue, rubber cement, household glue, spray paint, hairspray, air freshener, deodorant, fabric protector, computer keyboard cleaner, nail polish remover, paint thinner, toxic markers, pure toluene, cigar lighter fluid, gasoline, carburetor cleaner, octane booster, spot remover, degreaser, vegetable cooking spray, dessert topping spray (whipped cream), nitrous oxide, butane, propane, helium and especially computer keyboard cleaner, referred to as “dusting.”

Harvey Weiss, Director of the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition (NIPC) in Chattanooga, Tenn. that organizes the campaign, said, “We must note that most professionals appreciate that inhalant deaths may go unnoted and underreported.”

To get your coalition involved in the campaign, visit www.inhalants.org.