You know them as paint, gasoline, cleansers, marker pens, or spray paint. But when these legal products are misused and their fumes are sniffed, they're called inhalants and they can kill you. Inhalants proved deadly to five teenage girls in suburban Philadelphia recently. Their deaths in a car crash were blamed on the driver's impaired judgement. Tests found that the driver and three of the others had inhaled a spray used to clean computer keys.
Inhalants do more than impair judgement.
They can cause severe brain damage by destroying the nerves that allow the brain to communicate with the rest of the body. They can poison the bloodstream leading to irregular heart beats and heart failure. They replace the oxygen in the lungs which can lead to suffocation. They can shut down the kidneys so the body loses its ability to filter poisons out of the blood supply. Despite these devastating effects, the use of inhalants is rising in the United States.