'Dusting' is linked to death of infant

Baltimore SUn ^ | March 2, 2007 | Julie Scharper

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The young father told police that he was alone with his newborn son when he inhaled the spray from a can of electronics cleaner, an increasingly popular choice for those seeking a cheap high

Moments later, he went on to tell investigators, he awoke from a brief blackout to find his 15-day-old son bruised and disfigured. Kenneth George Ryan said he does not remember how the baby was hurt, but yesterday police announced that the 20-year-old Baltimore County man had been charged with murder.

Young people call the practice "dusting," a name taken from the "Dust-Off" brand product that uses a burst of gas to clean computer keyboards and other electronics.

Videos of teenagers shooting the cleaner into their mouths can be found on the Web site youtube.com. Wild-eyed, they laugh, chatter in altered voices and fall down.

But they risk their lives each time they inhale the substance, experts say. News accounts describe three teenage boys dead in a car with a can of Dust-Off and a youngster found dead in bed with the straw from the can in his mouth.

"Tonight between 12 and 1, I'm probably going to be sitting at the cemetery," said Jeff Williams, an Ohio police officer whose 14-year-old son, Kyle, died two years ago today after huffing, or inhaling, the gas. "I don't want anyone else to have to go through that."

Mike Gimbel, director of substance abuse education at Sheppard Pratt, said some parents might not think anything of buying a product that they assume is nothing more than canned air.

"They don't realize how dangerous it can be," he said, explaining that the cans contain a toxic mixture of compressed gases, coolants and cleaners.

[gridlock]

I was on a site a while back, and they had about twenty different types of video head cleaner for sale. I'm pretty sure there are not that many people out there with dirty video heads that so desperately need cleaning, and are just searching for the perfect product to leave them shiny and spotless.

The site operates openly, and apparently sells an awful lot of the stuff.

[Chi-townChief]

A friend of mine who was in the Navy in the 70s said this was a basic training high.

[Chi-townChief]

OOPS - "popular basic training high"

[street_lawyer]

So then kids are no longer spending their time playing Monopoly or pick-up-sticks?

[Roccus]

"So then kids are no longer spending their time playing Monopoly or pick-up-sticks?"


I'd be surprised if pick-up-sticks are still sold. Pointy on both ends and all.

[Valpal1]

Moments later, he went on to tell investigators, he awoke from a brief blackout to find his 15-day-old son bruised and disfigured

I call BS, that's his cover story to avoid admitting he beat his crying baby to death because he's a POS.

[snarks_when_bored]

It's surprising that so many teenagers make it to adulthood...

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

People who risk their well-being and lives, and the well-being and lives of those around them, for a temporary high, are incredibly stupid and irresponsible. It's too bad that this clown didn't off himself in the process and, if they have the death penalty in Maryland and it can be applied in this case, this guy should definitely get it.

But, since we have substance abuse at a pandemic level in this country, from the ghetto junkie to the powerful and glamourous, and so many people are involved in the trade, from Mexican drug cartels that compete to control our southern border to the people who cook up stuff out of Sudafed in their basements to the Pennsylanian high school principal who sold it, it isn't really surprising that some children, whose rock star and hip-hop heroes no doubt endorse the stuff, will try to get high on whatever they can get their hands on.

It is a great personal and societal illness and a great tragedy.

[leilani]

Yep, but when did that ever stop anybody? His public defender is probably already preparing briefs for a future claim by the 'parents' against 3M for manufacturing this stuff.

Expect to see an ABA-produced Dateline special by summer decrying the lack of label warnings expressly addressing the possibility that inhaling this product can be damaging to the health of innocently bystanding infants & children.

Congressional hearings to follow, of course.

[trisham]

Doesn't this stuff cause serious and permanent brain-damage?

[street_lawyer]

Wow, you're right, pick-up-sticks are too dangerous for drug sniffing kids. A kid might poke his eye out, or the eye of one of his siblings. Since there is one-half of one-percent chance of this happening in a decade, I can see why advocates for safe toys for children might oppose the sale of pick-up-sticks to mothers of children who have had several abortions, which if you think about it actually reduces the possibility of loosing an eye to pick-up-sticks to zero for the aborted child.

[gridlock]

Expect to see an ABA-produced Dateline special by summer decrying the lack of label warnings expressly addressing the possibility that inhaling this product can be damaging to the health of innocently bystanding infants & children.

Of course, idiot kids just look for the warning labels to see what might give them a high. If something has no psychological effect, it won't be labeled.

[gridlock]

This picture should be on the bulletin board of every Middle School in America.

People who huff are idiots.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

He looks like a guy I saw at the gas station the other day. The same glazed look in the eyes, but without the gold.

[Roccus]

'ZACTLY!!!

[No Truce With Kings]

"Moments later, he went on to tell investigators, he awoke from a brief blackout to find his 15-day-old son bruised and disfigured

I call BS, that's his cover story to avoid admitting he beat his crying baby to death because he's a POS."

Yup. Huffing causes hallucinations due to oxygen deprivation. Oxygen deprivation does not cause you to go berserk -- it causes you to pass out. If he was in an inhallent-induced blackout he was not doing ANYTHING.