With spring and the warmer months quickly approaching, kids are highly anticipating the release from the daily grind of school and the opportunity to spend their days, nights and weekends without all the responsibilty.
Unfortunately, with the warmer weather comes more criminal activity, and with all the young people on the streets, opportunities for huffing chemical substances are more readily available.
Although the Tyrone area hasn’t seen much inhalant activity over the past couple of years, borough police chief Joe Beachem says it is here.
“What’s bad about huffing is that it affects younger people,” said Beachem. “We usually see it in kids from age 10 to 14. It’s a gateway for kids to get into the harder, more addictive substances that are out there.”
Last summer, Beachem noted that some area juveniles were arrested after being caught huffing. He said in one case, a 15-year-old male was severely burned when a substance he was huffing caught fire. He had to be treated at a burn center for his injuries.
“It’s definitely dangerous,” said Beachem. “A lot of young people think it’s okay because the chemicals they huff can be found just about anywhere. That’s another reason why huffing is so dangerous. The stuff people are huffing is easily available.”
According to Beachem, some of the more common substances “huffed” are: gasoline, spray paint, paint thinner, model glue, lighter fluid and propane.
“Parents really need to be aware if their kids are engaging in this type of activity,” said Beachem.
He said parents should look for signs in the children that huffing is taking place. He said youngsters exhibit signs of being drunk if they are huffing chemicals. He said to watch for slurred speech, passing out, chemical smells on the breath, chemical substances around the nose and mouth, and supplies of soda cans, baggies, socks or rags, that are used as means to administer the toxic chemicals into the body.
“It’s really hard, but parents need to learn to control things around the house,” said Beachem. “We find that many people who huff get the things right from their own home.”
Beachem said there is a law in the Pennsylvania Crimes Code for dealing with people found to be huffing. It is a misdemeanor of the third degree and people found violating this “sale or illegal use of certain solvents” law can find themselves in prison and/or paying hefty fines.
In an effort to help curb the huffing problem, an experimental program involving schools across six states, including Pennsylvania, will be announced this morning.
The Alliance for Consumer Education and the American School Counselor Association are sponsoring the program. The organizations estimate that nearly half of parents mention the abuse of inhalants — more commonly known as huffing — when discussing drug abuse with their children.
About one of every five students has abused inhalants by eighth grade, according to the Alliance for Consumer Education. Though deaths are relatively rare, huffing can cause brain, heart, lung, kidney and liver damage.
Pennsylvania was chosen in part because the state’s new driving under the influence law addresses huffing, according to program spokesman Edward F. Tate III.
“We wanted a state that had an awareness of the problem and a strong interest in it,” said Tate.
C. Stephen Erni, executive director of the Pennsylvania DUI Association, said the group supported the addition of inhalants to the recent DUI law revisions. The group is scheduling workshops to teach law enforcement officers how to detect inhalant abuse.
“Unless the suspect is vomiting or there is a strong chemical odor, inhalant abuse is hard to spot,” Erni said.
Although huffing isn’t widespread in Pennsylvania, the practice has been around for decades, said Clint Page, a Norwin High School guidance counselor and a past president of the state School Counselors Association. He recalled attending a workshop on huffing 30 years ago.
“It was a problem then and it’s a problem now,” he said Monday.
Ohio, Virginia, Texas, Alabama and Alaska will also participate. As many as 90 percent of elementary-school children in Alaska have at least tried huffing, according to some estimates, Tate said.
(The Associated Press contributed to this article.)
