Although shoemakers and leather workers are Resistol's main consumers, a large though unknown quantity ends up under the noses of street kids. The adhesive's fumes go straight to the frontal lobes, the switchboard of the brain, and to brain areas that control emotions. Resistol turns off the brain's connection to reality, neutralizing stress, pain and fear, taking the place of parental affection. Short-term use can produce nosebleeds, rashes and headaches. It can also lead to long-term use because toluene is psychologically addictive.
Chronic abuse can cause neurological damage, kidney or liver failure, paralysis and death.
Fuller insists that the glue was designed for shoes, not immature brains, and that the company is not responsible for product abuse. We don't sell to street children. If people, children or adults, get it illegitimately, that's a concern to us, but you've got to remember that's not our main focus. Activists counter that glue makers can address the abuse problem in the production process. In 1968, the U.S.-based Testor Corporation became an industry model when it added mustard oil to model airplane glue.