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.
\nUnfortunately, 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.
\nAlthough the Tyrone area hasn\u2019t seen much inhalant activity over the past couple of years, borough police chief Joe Beachem says it is here.
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s bad about huffing is that it affects younger people,\u201d said Beachem. \u201cWe usually see it in kids from age 10 to 14. It\u2019s a gateway for kids to get into the harder, more addictive substances that are out there.\u201d
\nLast 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.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s definitely dangerous,\u201d said Beachem. \u201cA lot of young people think it\u2019s okay because the chemicals they huff can be found just about anywhere. That\u2019s another reason why huffing is so dangerous. The stuff people are huffing is easily available.\u201d
\nAccording to Beachem, some of the more common substances \u201chuffed\u201d are: gasoline, spray paint, paint thinner, model glue, lighter fluid and propane.
\n\u201cParents really need to be aware if their kids are engaging in this type of activity,\u201d said Beachem.
\nHe 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.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s really hard, but parents need to learn to control things around the house,\u201d said Beachem. \u201cWe find that many people who huff get the things right from their own home.\u201d
\nBeachem 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 \u201csale or illegal use of certain solvents\u201d law can find themselves in prison and\/or paying hefty fines.
\nIn an effort to help curb the huffing problem, an experimental program involving schools across six states, including Pennsylvania, will be announced this morning.
\nThe 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 \u2014 more commonly known as huffing \u2014 when discussing drug abuse with their children.
\nAbout 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.
\nPennsylvania was chosen in part because the state\u2019s new driving under the influence law addresses huffing, according to program spokesman Edward F. Tate III.
\n\u201cWe wanted a state that had an awareness of the problem and a strong interest in it,\u201d said Tate.
\nC. 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.
\n\u201cUnless the suspect is vomiting or there is a strong chemical odor, inhalant abuse is hard to spot,\u201d Erni said.
\nAlthough huffing isn\u2019t 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.
\n\u201cIt was a problem then and it\u2019s a problem now,\u201d he said Monday.
\nOhio, 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.
\n(The Associated Press contributed to this article.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44953\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}