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Get Ready for National Inhalants & Poisons Awareness Week

While some illicit drugs are on the decline, according to the 2009 Monitoring the Future survey, inhalants are the number one drug of choice by "tweens" and middle schoolers. National Inhalants & Poisons Awareness Week (NIPAW), held March 14-20, is an opportunity to raise awareness of the dangers of inhalants and to get your community engaged on this issue.

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.

National Inhalants & Poisons Awareness Week (NIPAW) is an annual media-based, community-level program that takes place the third week in March. NIPAW is designed to increase understanding about the use and risks of inhalant involvement. It is an inclusive program that involves youth, schools, media, police departments, health organization, civics groups and more. It has proven to be an effective means of mobilizing communities to reduce inhalant use. Almost 2,000 organizations and individuals from 46 states participated in the last NIPAW campaign.

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.”

According to the survey results, while use of inhalants is not rising, the investigators remain concerned because the perceived risk associated with those drugs has been in decline for several years and may leave young people open to renewed interest in huffing. Eighth and 10th graders, who are most likely to use inhalants, have been showing a steady decline since 2001 in the belief that experimenting with these substances is dangerous.

“This leaves them more vulnerable to any new stimulus toward trying inhalants,” University of Michigan researcher Lloyd Johnston, the study’s principal investigator, noted in the survey results news release.
 

For more information on how to respond to the problem of inhalants in your community and to order a National Inhalants & Poisons Awareness Week coordinators kit, contact the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition (NIPC) at 800-269-4237 or nipc@io.com, or visit www.inhalants.org/nipaw.htm.
 

 Source: CADCA