Inhalant Abuse

Falcon Safety Products Inc. is committed to helping stop the dangerous practice of inhalant abuse. Promoting greater public awareness through education has been an essential component of our mission for over 30 years. We are encouraged by recent statistics showing that inhalation abuse at an all-time low, but feel more can (and should) be done.

Facts About Inhalant Abuse

• What is Inhalant Abuse? Inhalant abuse is the deliberate concentration or sniffing of fumes, vapors or gases from common chemically based products found in homes, communities, and schools in order to “get high.”
• It involves over 1,400 different common household products ^[1] such as gasoline, propane, a number of aerosols, glue, markers, and correction fluid.
• All of these products serve a useful purpose in our everyday lives and are entirely safe when used as intended. It is only when these products are intentionally misused that they can be dangerous and even deadly.
• Inhalant abuse can be deadly. Sniffing highly concentrated amounts of chemicals in solvents, gases or aerosol sprays can induce heart failure.
• Short-term risks include death, headaches, muscle weakness, abdominal pain, severe mood swings, violent behavior, slurred speech, numbness, hearing loss, loss of consciousness, fatigue, and dizziness.
• Long-term risks include death, brain, liver and kidney damage, weight loss, muscle weakness, lack of coordination, depression, hearing loss, limb spasms, central nervous system (including brain) damage

“A cleaning duster is a serious product. Inhalant abuse is illegal and can cause permanent injury or be fatal. Please use our product responsibly.”

For further information, please look at the safety label on the back of one of our cans.

Inhalant Abuse Prevention

Education is critical. The power of communication regarding inhalant abuse cannot be overlooked, and as a result, parents, educators, consumers, and manufacturers need to join together and face inhalant abuse head on. The statistics demonstrate that education is the most effective weapon in the fight against inhalant abuse:

• Studies show that kids are 50% less likely to try inhalants or other drugs if an adult talks to them about the dangers ^[2].
• Inhalant abuse among adolescents and teens has been on decline for about a decade^[3].
• Past year use of inhalants across all grades are at their lowest rates since 1975^[4].

Complimenting education in a three-pronged approach to fight inhalation abuse are engineering controls in the product itself and administrative controls– laws making intentional misuse and driving under the influence of inhalants Illegal. Falcon Safety Products was the 1st aerosol manufacturer to successfully incorporate a bittering agent into our products 10 years ago to help deter the potential abuse of our compressed-gas dusters via a patented formulation. Many states have an inhalation law or laws, but all do not have DUI laws which we strongly support.

For more information on drug and/or inhalant abuse please reference the websites below.

• Partnership for a Drug-Free America (PDFA)
• Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)
• Monitoring the Future Study – National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
• National Inhalant Prevention Coalition (NIPC)
• Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse