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Inhalants

Quick Facts

  • People using inhalants frequently do risky or humiliating things they later regret.
  • Using inhalants, even one time, can kill you.
  • Long-term use has been associated with irreversible brain damage
  • Short-term effects of inhalants include heart palpitations, breathing difficulty, dizziness and headache.

What are the possible effects of using inhalants?

  • headache, muscle weakness, abdominal pain
  • visual hallucinations and severe mood swings
  • numbness and tingling of the hands and feet
  • decrease or loss of sense of smell
  • nausea and nosebleeds
  • hepatitis
  • violent behavior
  • irregular heartbeat
  • sudden death
  • suffocation
  • liver, lung and kidney impairment
  • brain damage
  • nervous system damage
  • dangerous chemical imbalances in the body
  • involuntary passing of urine and feces

How can you possibly die from using inhalants?

The Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse reports that death can occur in at least five ways:

  1. Asphyxia - solvent gases can significantly limit available oxygen on the air, causing breathing to stop.
  2. Suffocation - typically seen with inhalant users who use bags.
  3. Choking on vomit.
  4. Careless and dangerous behaviors in potentially dangerous settings - one study showed that suicide, homicide and injuries were responsible for 77% of the deaths of inhalant users.
  5. Sudden sniffing death syndrome - presumably from cardiac arrest.

Inhalants are a diverse group of chemicals that are found in consumer products such as aerosols and cleaning solvents. Across the United States, the National Institute on drug abuse estimates that 1.2 million people abused inhalants in 1990, with the number of young people making up 65% of that total. Inhalant use can cause a number of physical and emotional problems, and even one-time use can result in death. It is frequently a "gateway" drug to more addictive and dangerous drugs such as crack and heroin.

If you or someone you know has been using inhalants, there is help available. Talk to a school counselor, a friend or a parent, or one of the valuable resources which are linked from this web site.

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