Inhalants
Teenagers intentionally inhale the vapors of common household products such as hair spray, shoe polish and glue each year.
The health effects can include brain and neural damage, convulsions, deafness, impaired vision, depressed motor skills and death. The social effects, surveys show, include behavioral problems, other drug use and delinquent behavior.
Inhalants commonly sniffed, or “huffed,” by children as young as 8 include gasoline and lighter fluid, spray paints, cleaning fluids, paint thinners and other solvents, degreasers, correction fluids, hair sprays and odorizers.