THOUSANDS of adolescents and teen-aged youngsters in many cities throughout the United States and other countries are deliberately inhaling vapors of a wide variety of volatile organic solvents in order to induce repeated states of inebriation. Although the practice itself is not new, its occurrence in epidemic proportions in many areas and the passage of legislation prohibiting the act in many cities and states in the United States have brought the problem into nationwide prominence.
Some of the solvents used (such as carbon tetrachloride, trichlorethane, benzene, and acetone) have been implicated in previous industrial exposures as the cause of serious toxic effects, including fatalities. The possibility of similar ill effects from these and other solvents when used in much higher concentrations at shorter, but frequently repeated intervals as currently practiced, is one that has been raised repeatedly. Consequently, the Panel on Household and Economic Chemicals of the American Medical Association's Section on Adverse Reactions (Council on Drugs) invited this appraisal of the problem. Included is an assessment of the potential problem from the standpoints of incidence, acute effects, behavioral difficulties, possible chronic or cumulative toxic effects, and possible remedial measures.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
This report summarizes the authors' investigations of the problem over the period of the last several years. In addition, it includes a review of published reports, the results of extensive discussions and correspondence with medical and law enforcement personnel in many areas of the United States, Sweden, and elsewhere. Also direct medical and hospital studies of a sample of habitual sniffers by one of us (A.K.D.) in Salt Lake City, Utah, and a detailed comparison of four other similar studies and a personal experiment on simultaneous electroencephalographic tracings and blood level measurements during inhalation by the other (E.P.).
Salt Lake City, United States of America