Solvent abuse
More than one person a week dies from volatile solvent abuse. TheSite investigates.
The real picture
When you think of drug-related deaths, images of Leah Betts and Rachel Whitear spring to mind, rather than those of deodorant bottles and lighter fuel, however glue sniffing kills many more people than ecstasy, just without all the press coverage.
These are not street drugs, the average home has 30 kitchen and bathroom products that can be abused, and it is the very fact that all of these substances are legal and have legitimate uses that allows users to argue that they are doing nothing wrong.
Abusable products
The products to be aware of include: butane gas cigarette lighter refills, liquefied domestic gas, solvent based adhesives, deodorant aerosols, pain relief sprays, aerosol air fresheners, hairspray, other aerosols, some typewriter correction fluids, petrol, certain paints, paint thinners & removers, dry cleaning agents, petrol lighter fuel, nail varnish & varnish remover, some shoe & metal polish, and plaster remover.
The numbers
The increase in number of young people using ecstasy over the last decade seems to have pushed volatile solvent abuse (VSA) to the edge of the media circus, with deaths by illegal substances getting many more column inches. However, in 2001 VSA was responsible for seven times the number of fatalities than those related to ecstasy.
The 2003 annual report from the European Union's drug agency warned that one problem often overlooked but with a big impact on public health is young peoples use of solvents and inhalants after cannabis and alcohol these are the substances most commonly used by 15- to 16-year-olds in the EU, and found that one in seven 15- and 16-year-olds in Britain sniff solvents to get high.
More than one person dies every week in the UK from the effects of solvent abuse, between 70-100 each year. Drugs charity SOLVE IT says solvent abuse kills 60 young people each year, while St Georges Hospital Medical Schools annual report on mortalities from solvent and volatile substance abuse (2001) puts the figure at 75.
One third of young people that die from VSA are first-time solvent abusers, and in 37% of deaths in 1997 there was no prior known history of abuse. Young people remain the group most associated with solvent abuse - between 1971 and 2000, most deaths from VSA occurred in the 14-18 age range.
For adults the home was by far the most common place of fatal abuse, but for those under 18 years old the fatal abuse was almost as likely to have been in a public place.
Solvent abusers can be male or female, although there are higher numbers of solvent related deaths in boys. This may be due to differences in sniffing behaviour.
How do people die?
Sniffing solvents may cause intoxication similar to the effects of alcohol. So a sniffer may become drowsy, confused, aggressive, may take more risks than they would when sober, and so on. Accidents are, therefore, quite common and sometimes fatal.
Over half of the deaths that have been linked to solvent sniffing, appear to result from the direct toxic effects of the chemicals that were sniffed; but other deaths result from accidents, choking on vomit or suffocation. Deaths are often sudden, and often a mechanism of death involving cardiac arrest appears to be the cause.
Gas fuels continue to be associated with the majority of deaths. In 2001, butane lighter fuel accounted for two-thirds of VSA deaths (42 of the 63 deaths). Sniffing the butane gas in lighters causes the heart to beat irregularly which can induce a heart attack.
