This past winter while I was pre-interning, my grade 6/7 split were finishing off their Health presentations on drug addictioins/abuse. One of the presentations really surprized me, children use Dust Off, a computer cleaning product, to get high! It’s called “dusting” and when you spray into your mouth and inhale it, you get a 10 second high. This is scary stuff! To kids, it might sound like harmless fun, but the reality is that the compressed air can make your lungs and airway sieze…preventing you from breathing. It also contains a propellant called R2. It’s a refrigerant, like what is used in your refridgerator. 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, or buzzed. It decreases the oxygen to your brain and to your heart. Inhaling Dust Off can kill you!
“Dusting” is becomming more and more popular amoung our children, and it needs to be addressed in schools and at home. I’m wondering how long it will take, after how many children are sent to the emergency room, will suppliers take Dust Off off the shelves. But while this product is still being made available, we need to educate our students, our children, in order to protect them. We can’t always stop them from the things they do, but we can support and guide them to make the right decisions, and not give in to peer pressure.
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June 15th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Hey! Interesting post. I think you are right that we need to educate students. I believe there is a lack of drug education in schools. One day doesn’t cut it…and that is usually what happens in health classrooms. I think a big part of this is educators not being afraid to talk about these issues, and not avoiding them in younger classrooms. I think it’s great that you were part of health presentations for grade 6/7. Once you educate students, you have to hope that they will see the effects and dangers of this kind of inhalant use.
June 15th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
This is terrifying! Thanks for posting this. I think as educators we need to begin to discuss these issues even before grade 6 and 7. Sometimes, by the time our students are 11 and 12 years old, it’s too late. It is also important, however, to educate ourselves. We need to become aware of the trends in drug use of young teens and utilize community supports and health care professionals to help us bring these issues to the forefront in our classrooms.
June 17th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
I had no idea about ‘dusting’. This is good to know. I agree with others, educating younger students about these issues is important. I remember in elementary school a public health nurse talking to our class about drugs and alcohol. I think it was grade 4 or 5 when she came. From what I remember, our parents had to sign a permission slip in order to attend the presentation. Also, I think this type of presentation did not occur every year but did in our year because the public health nurse’s daughter was in our class. Something interesting to note as well is that our graduating class was the only class (none before and after) to hold a chem free grad…not sure if the two are related but interesting to note.
June 18th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
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