An odor of paint or solvents on clothes, skin, and breath is sometimes a sign of inhalant abuse. Sniffing highly concentrated amounts of the chemicals in solvents or aerosol sprays can directly induce heart failure and death. They also cause death from suffocation by displacing oxygen in the lungs and then in the central nervous system, causing breathing to cease. The chronic use of inhalants has been associated with a number of serious, long-term, and often irreversible health problems. These include hearing loss, brain and central nervous system damage, bone marrow damage, liver and kidney damage, and blood oxygen depletion.
Inhalant abuse is shockingly common among children and adolescents.
In a 1998 survey by the National Parents' Resource Institute for Drug Education, 2.2 percent of fourth graders and 2.7 percent of sixth graders admitted to sniffing glue and other inhalants on a monthly basis. By the time they reach the eighth grade, 5.0 percent will be using inhalants monthly, and 19.7 percent will have used inhalants at least once in their lifetime, according to statistics from the 1999 Monitoring the Future study. Inhalants are readily available, inexpensive, and easy to conceal. Therefore, they are increasingly popular with young people and are, for many, one of the first substances abused. The extent of the inhalant problem among children and adolescents was, at first, virtually unrecognized by the general public.