Inhalant Facts

Inhalants are chemical vapors that you can sniff or inhale which usually come from household products. Inhalants will hit your bloodstream, entering the brain and causing psychoactive effects. The high usually washes over the user within five minutes, and usually doesn’t last up to one hour. Sometimes inhaling is known as “huffing”. Some inhalant street names are whippets, poppers and snappers. The age group which generally uses inhalants are teens, for lack of being able to either get their hands on or afford something else. Inhalants are easy to access because most of the time they are right inside the person’s home. The way inhalants are used is either by “huffing” which is breathing in from a cloth that the substance has been poured on, inhaling straight out of the container or from a bag that has the substance inside of it.

There are four main categories of inhalants. These are Volatile Solvents, Aerosols, Gases and Nitrites. Volatile Solvents are products that contain industrial, household, art and office supply solvents. This includes several types of products such as paint thinners, paint removers, degreasers, fluids utilized for dry-cleaning, gasoline, electronic contact cleaners, correction fluids (“white-out”), and felt marker fluid. Aerosols are products such as spray paints, hair sprays, deodorant sprays, fabric protector sprays, aerosol computer cleaning products and vegetable oil sprays. Gases are products like butane lighters, propane tanks, whipped cream aerosols or dispensers, anesthetic gases, ether, chloroform, halothane and nitrous oxide (“laughing gas”, “nitro”). Nitrites include cyclohexyl, butyl and amyl nitrites.

Inhalant Effects

The effects from inhalants can vary in intensity depending on the amount inhaled. The high from inhalants have been described by a lot of users as having an effect similar to alcohol intoxication. If a high amount of inhalant is taken the person can experience anesthesia, loss of sensation and sometimes unconsciousness. The high can also include a euphoric feeling, drowsiness, inhibition, excitement, lack of coordination, slurred speech, and hallucination. Some negative effects that using inhalants can include are delusion, nausea, diarrhea, confusion, cough and nosebleeds.

When people are withdrawing from inhalants they can experience a litany of symptoms. These symptoms are:

  • Anxiety
  • Agitation
  • Depression
  • Chills
  • Convulsions
  • Excessive sweating
  • Dizzy
  • Headaches
  • Hallucinations
  • Nausea
  • Tremors
  • Muscle cramps
  • Shaking
  • Aggressiveness

What Is The Health Risk That Comes Along With Using Inhalants?

There are several short-term dangers to using inhalants. These include loss of consciousness, heart failure, suffocation, injury and will put the user at risk of getting Sudden Sniffing Death Syndrome (SSDS). The risk of Sudden Sniffing Death Syndrome is actually quite high and it was found that 22% of who have gotten SSDS were first time users of inhalants. It’s unfortunate that a lot of these people were actually in a healthy condition prior to the tragic incident and had they not used would still be alive. This goes to show that the risk of damaging your health is extreme in the case of inhalants.

Some long-term dangers to using include:

  • Damage to the brain, liver, kidneys and central nervous system
  • Vision damage
  • Hearing loss
  • Limb spasms
  • Blacking out
  • Bone marrow damage
  • Cognitive decline
  • Damage to the immune system
  • Loss of memory
  • Breathing difficulty
  • Heart damage
  • Seizures
  • Blindness
  • Gastro intestinal problems

The bottom line is that using inhalants can seriously deteriorate the health of the user and actually cause permanent damage to the brain, liver, kidneys and central nervous system which are all vital to one’s health and functioning. The fact that anyone is at high risk to getting SSDS within their first hit at the drug should be enough of a warning to ward off whomever becomes inhalant-curious, as it’s truly playing russian roulette with their own life. Inhalant drugs really are a serious threat to especially teenagers and high school kids whom aren’t properly informed or educated on the risks they’re taking by using them.

Inhalant Usage Statistics And Facts

Some interesting facts and statistics regarding inhalant usage are:

  • Over 1,400 various products are used as inhalants.
  • In 2007 inhalants were the top abused substance for kids aged between twelve to thirteen.
  • In 2006 the US National Survey on Drug Use and Health gave a report that one a million kids under the age of eighteen abused inhalants within that year.
  • Over 2.1 million kids between twelve and seventeen years of age have abused inhalants.
  • A lot of inhalant users claim they started their habit in grade school.
  • In 2006 alone, 5,643 people were sent to the ER due to abusing inhalants.

Can Inhalant Abuse Become Addictive?

Yes, inhalant abuse can absolutely become addictive. In fact, inhalants are very addictive types of drugs. People tend to get addicted to the high on a psychological level but this is soon followed by a physical dependancy. Tolerance tends to built up, and the user is headed towards addiction at a fast rate. Cravings are a huge thing with inhalants, a major catalyst to keep the person hooked. The addictive properties of inhalants are up against a huge contrast to the severe havoc it can wreak on your health. It really is one of the worst addictions in terms of what it’s doing to the body in the long run. It also has a fairly high rate of relapse.

This isn’t necessarily an addiction that’s easy to get away with, though. Inhalant addiction is actually pretty obvious and sometimes it is able to be detected by the person’s breath alone. The user can often get a terrible chemical breath from being an inhalant user. Sometimes a user will try to hide their addiction by sniffing or inhaling their clothes which they had poured or rubbed the substance on. This will make it easier for them to get high in public, hidden behind a guise of smelling their clothes. However if you happen to get a whiff of chemical smells from this person when it isn’t really justified then chances are that they’re struggling with an inhalant addiction.

Another telltale sign would be the obvious route which is noticing if your cleaning products are being utilized at an oddly fast pace. This is of course only effective in a situation where you actually happen to be living with the person whom you suspect. However, it could also be noticed by going to the person’s house and seeing one too many cleaning products or other type of products which are commonly used as inhalants laying around.

The reason inhalants are particularly common with kids is because they are easy to get and if they’re being taken from the home they are looked at as a free opportunity to get high. If you suspect that you’re kid is abusing inhalants it’s very important to address their drug problem and see that they get help as soon as possible.

Signs Of An Inhalant Overdose

The specific signs to look out for when someone is overdosing on an inhalant is if the person isn’t breathing as much as they should be, if they’re unconscious, confused or having a seizure. It’s very important to regard these signs as a serious situation of overdose and treat it as such. To not call 911 could be pretty dangerous in an emergency like this.

By Robert O. Newman II, ICDAC, ICPS, CIP