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Teenager Dies After Inhaling Dust-Off Cleaning Spray

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Circulating since: April 2005

Status: True

Analysis: See below

Email example contributed by Raquel, 20 April 2005:

Subject: Worth The Read

This is heavy, but well worth the read. Especially for anyone with kids.......

First I'M going to tell you a little about me and my family. My name is Jeff. I am a Police Officer for a city which is known nationwide for its crime rate. We have a lot of gangs and drugs. At one point we were # 2 in the nation in homicides per capita. I also have a police K-9 named Thor . He was certified in drugs and general duty. He retired at 3 years old because he was shot in the line of duty. He lives with us now and I still train with him because he likes it. I always liked the fact that there was no way to bring drugs into my house. Thor wouldn't allow it. He would tell on you. The reason I say this is so you understand that I know about drugs. I have taught in schools about drugs. My wife asks all our kids at least once a week if they used any drugs. Makes them promise they wont.

My wife Kathy is a nurse and we have 3 children. Kyle was the oldest at 14. The other two are 12 and 13 years of age. Kyle loved football and played for his school. I went to every one of his games. He didn't always play much since it was his first year but I didn't care. He also loved playing games on his computer or his playstation. When World of Warcraft was coming out in a beta version he signed up like 200 times to be a beta tester for it. If you were picked you got a number and could go to the site and download it. Well, Kyle signed up so many times he received 2 numbers. He then posted one on ebay and sold it for 375.00 dollars. Unbelievable for a 2 or 3 month beta test. He then contacted a losing bidder from California (different time zone) and sold him the 12 hours that he would be sleeping or in school for, for 100.00 dollars. They shared the log in code. Kyle had so much potential. He could do anything he wanted to.

I like building computers occasionally and started building a new one in February 2005. I also was working on some of my older computers. They were full of dust so on one of my trips to the computer store I bought a 3 pack of DUST OFF. Dust Off is a can of compressed air to blow dust off a computer. A few weeks later when I went to use them they were all used. I talked to my kids and my 2 sons both said they had used them on their computer and messing around with them. I yelled at them for wasting the 10 dollars I paid for them. On February 28 I went back to the computer store. They didn't have the 3 pack which I had bought on sale so I bought a single jumbo can of Dust Off. I went home and set it down beside my computer.

On March 1st I left for work at 10 PM. At 11 PM my wife went down and kissed Kyle goodnight. At 530 am the next morning Kathy went downstairs to wake Kyle up for school, before she left for work. He was sitting up in bed with his legs crossed and his head leaning over. She called to him a few times to get up. He didn't move. He would sometimes tease her like this and pretend he fell back asleep. He was never easy to get up. She went in and shook his arm. He fell over. He was pale white and had the straw from the Dust Off can coming out of his mouth. He had the new can of Dust Off in his hands. Kyle was dead.

I am a police officer and I had never heard of this. My wife is a nurse and she had never heard of this. We later found out from the coroner, after the autopsy, that only the propellant from the can of Dust off was in his system. No other drugs. Kyle had died between midnight and 1 Am.

I found out that using Dust Off is being done mostly by kids ages 9 through 15. They even have a name for it. It's called dusting. A take off from the Dust Off name. It gives them a slight high for about 10 seconds. It makes them dizzy. A boy who lives down the street from us showed Kyle how to do this about a month before. Kyle showed his best friend. Told him it was cool and it couldn't hurt you. Its just compressed air. It cant hurt you. His best friend said no.

Kyle's death

Kyle was wrong. It's not just compresses air. It also contains a propellant. I think its R2. Its a refrigerant like what is used in your refrigerator. It is a heavy gas. Heavier than air. When you inhale it, it fills your lungs and keeps the good air, with oxygen, out. That's why you feel dizzy, buzzed. It decreases the oxygen to your brain, to your heart. Kyle was right. It cant hurt you. IT KILLS YOU. The horrible part about this is there is no warning. There is no level that kills you. It's not cumulative or an overdose; it can just go randomly, terribly wrong. Roll the dice and if your number comes up you die. ITS NOT AN OVERDOSE. Its Russian roulette. You don't die later. Or not feel good and say I've had too much. You usually die as your breathing it in. If not you die within 2 seconds of finishing "the hit." That's why the straw was still in Kyle's mouth when he died. Why his eye's were still open.

The experts want to call this huffing. The kids don't believe its huffing. As adults we tend to lump many things together. But it doesn't fit here. And that's why its more accepted. There is no chemical reaction. no strong odor. It doesn't follow the huffing signals. Kyle complained a few days before he died of his tongue hurting. It probably did. The propellant causes frostbite. If I had only known.

Its easy to say hay, its my life and I'll do what I want. But it isn't. Others are always effected. This has forever changed our family's life. I have a hole in my heart and soul that can never be fixed. The pain is so immense I cant describe it. There's nowhere to run from it. I cry all the time and I don't ever cry. I do what I'm supposed to do but I don't really care. My kids are messed up. One wont talk about it. The other will only sleep in our room at night. And my wife, I cant even describe how bad she is taking this. I thought we were safe because of Thor. I thought we were safe because we knew about drugs and talked to our kids about them.

After Kyle died another story came out. A Probation Officer went to the school system next to ours to speak with a student. While there he found a student using Dust Off in the bathroom. This student told him about another student who also had some in his locker. This is a rather affluent school system. They will tell you they don't have a drug problem there. They don't even have a D.A.R.E. or Plus program there. So rather than tell everyone about this "new" way of getting high they found, they hid it. The probation officer told the media after Kyle's death and they, the school, then admitted to it. I know that if they would have told the media and I had heard, it wouldn't have been in my house. We need to get this out of our homes and school computer labs.

Using Dust Off isn't new and some "professionals" do know about it. It just isn't talked about much, except by the kids. They know about it.

April 2nd was 1 month since Kyle died. April 5th would have been his 15th birthday. And every weekday I catch myself sitting on the living room couch at 2:30 in the afternoon, and waiting to see him get off the bus. I know Kyle is in heaven, but I can't help but wonder if I died and went to Hell.

Jeff

Comments: True, and a cautionary tale that ought to be heeded by teenagers and parents alike. Fourteen-year-old Kyle Williams, son of Jeff and Kathy Williams of Painesville Township, Ohio, died on March 2, 2005 from the effects of inhaling the contents of a can of Dust-Off compressed-air cleaning spray (also known as "canned air").

The message above was written by Kyle's father, police officer Jeff Williams, who told me he first posted it on a support Web site for grieving parents, where it inspired readers to copy the text and forward it to others. Mr. Williams also shared his story in a March 10, 2005 column by Connie Schultz of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

The incident was also indirectly confirmed in an email from the CEO of Falcon Safety Products, Inc., the manufacturer of Dust-Off, which said, in part:

Our company is aware of reports of a death that may have resulted from “huffing” our compressed-gas product. It saddens me to say that this activity — the intentional misuse of aerosol products to achieve a “high” — is not an Urban Legend, and as a company, we are extremely concerned about such occurrences. And as upsetting as that is to us, our feelings cannot compare to those of a parent or family member who has lost a child.

While our products have been safely used by millions of people over the course of our company’s history, dangers do exist from intentional product misuse. Falcon Safety Products, Inc. has taken great strides over the years to spread the word about the dangers of aerosol inhalation, whether it be on our packaging, our web site or through pro-active public communication.

According to recent news reports citing health and law enforcement authorities, inhaling the vapors of common household products — including hair spray, lighter fluid, shoe polish, paint thinner, and glue, as well as Dust-Off — is fast becoming one of the most popular forms of drug abuse among teenagers. Among the serious health threats such activities pose are nerve damage, loss of hearing, vision impairment, and death.

See sources below for detailed information.

Sources and further reading:

Riverside High School Continues to Grieve

The News-Herald, 4 March 2005

A Dire Warning from a Grieving Dad

The Plain Dealer, 10 March 2005

Perry Parents Demand Action

The News-Herald, 16 March 2005

Inhalant Abuse (Falcon Safety Products Inc.)

Warning against inhalant abuse by Dust-Off manufacturer

Inhalant Abuse Increasing Among U.S. Teens

Reuters, 17 March 2005

urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_dust_off.htm

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Comment from the reader who sent Fourwinds this article.

----- Original Message -----
From: JCA
Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2007 1:58 PM
Subject: location of URL on dusting.
 
Patrick and Anne, On google I searche "Inhaling canned air dangers"  and there are 57,200 items.  The item I just sent you was the nineth on the list with heading "Teenager Dies After Inhailing Dust-Off Cleaning Spray-Netlore Archive" reference at bottom reads.  urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_dust_off.htm.  Namaste, JCA
 
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----- Original Message -----
From: Undislcosed
Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2008 11:24 PM
Subject: my son just passed away from what i believe to be this
 
My eighteen year old son was found by myself deceased in the morning. I saw the can next to the bed but didn't think he would be that stupid. I am awaiting autopsy results, they can't bring him back but has anyone ever tried to ban this product off the market by filing suit. I did not know the dangers of this other than computer use until a cousin mention he had tried it in the past.