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By Deborah Zabarenko
WASHINGTON, Mar 15 (Reuters) - US anti-drug officials warned on Thursday against "huffing"--inhaling vapors of household products ranging from nail polish remover to aerosol whipped cream-an activity practiced by 12 million Americans.
"These items can be deadly, but they are right under our kids' noses everyday," said Edward Jurith, acting director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). "When kids sniff or huff, they are inhaling poisons that do real damage, or even kill them."
One child in five has tried sniffing fumes of legal household goods by the end of high school, according to ONDCP.
Nearly a million young people tried huffing--one of several slang terms kids use for the experience--for the first time in 1998, the most recent year for which statistics are available.
More than 12 million Americans of all ages were doing it that year, according to the statistics, and some 441,000 young people aged 12-17 use inhalants each month.
Products that can be toxic when sniffed include room deodorizers, correction fluid, shoe polish, nitrous oxide--used by dentists and doctors but available without prescription--paint thinner, spray paints and other aerosol sprays, Jurith and others said at a news conference.
More than 1,000 different household substances can be inhaled to provide a brief "high," according to the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition.
NOT HARMLESS FUN
"Inhalants come disguised as harmless fun," Diane Stem, whose 16-year-old son Ricky died in 1996 after sniffing Freon fumes from an air conditioning unit, tearfully told reporters. "It's not drugs, it's not illegal, it's under your kitchen sink. You cannot assume that your child wouldn't experiment."
Symptoms of inhalant abuse--besides failing grades, chronic school absences and general apathy--can include paint or stains on body or clothing, chemical-soaked rags, bags or socks, spots or sores around mouth, red or runny eyes or nose, chemical breath odor and intoxicated appearance.
Long-term effects of inhalant abuse can include short-term memory loss, hearing loss, limp spasms, permanent brain damage, bone marrow damage, liver and kidney damage and death. Death can occur with the first use, anti-drug officials said.
Stem, Jurith and others, including Ann Brown of the Consumer Products Safety Commission and Republican Sen. Frank Murkowski of Alaska, stressed the need for education about the risks and warning signs of huffing.
In Alaska, Murkowski said, some 22 percent of high school students admit to experimenting with inhalants. The problem is so widespread, he said, that in grocery stores in the city of Nome, aerosol whipped cream cans are not kept on store shelves but must be requested from store clerks because young people were huffing fumes from it.
Fumes may be ingested by sniffing directly from containers, sniffing or inhaling from plastic bags placed over the head, sniffing or inhaling from cloth or clothing soaked with the substance, directly spraying aerosols into mouth or nose or inhaling vapors emitted by heating volatile substances.
More information is available on-line at http://www.inhalants.org.
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