Aw man.... True story

POSTED BY: SignyM
UPDATED: Friday, October 27, 2006 16:53
VIEWED: 4023
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SIGNYM

Friday, October 20, 2006 9:22 PM

Before you check this out on Snopes, I aready did. It's TRUE.

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First, I'm going to tell you a little about my family and me. My name is Jeff. I am a Police Officer for a city which is known nationwide for it's crime rate. We have a lot of gangs and drugs. At one point, we were # 2 in the nation in homicides per capita. I also have a police K-9 named Thor. He was certified in drugs and general duty. He retired at 3 years old because he was shot in the line of duty. He lives with us now and I still train with him because he likes it. I always liked the fact that there was no way to bring drugs into my house. Thor wouldn't allow it. He would tell on you. The reason I say this is so you understand that I know about drugs.

I have taught in schools about drugs. My wife asks all our kids at least once a week if they used any drugs. Makes them promise they won't. I like building computers occasionally and started building a new one in February 2005. I also was working on some of my older computers. They were full of dust so on one of my trips to the computer store I bought a 3 pack of DUST OFF. Dust Off is a can of compressed air to blow dust off a computer. A few weeks later when I went to use one of them, they were all used. I talked to my kids and my two sons both said they had used them on their computer and messing around with them. I yelled at them for wasting the 10 dollars I paid for them.

On February 28, I went back to the computer store. They didn't have the 3 pack that I had bought on sale so I bought a single jumbo can of Dust Off. I went home and set it down beside my computer. On March 1st, I left for work at 10 PM. Just before midnight, my wife went down and kissed Kyle goodnight. At 5:30 am, the next morning Kathy went downstairs to wake Kyle up for school, before she left for work. He was propped up in bed with his legs crossed and his head leaning over. She called to him a few times to get up. He didn't move. He would sometimes tease her like this and pretend he fell back asleep. He was never easy to get up. She went in and shook his arm. He fell over. He was pale white and had the straw from the Dust Off can coming out of his mouth. He had the new can of Dust Off in his hands. Kyle was dead.

I am a police officer and I had never heard of this. My wife is a nurse and she had never heard of this. We later found out from the coroner, after the autopsy, that only the propellant from the can of Dust off was in his system. No other drugs. Kyle had died between midnight and 11 AM.

I found out that using Dust Off is being done mostly by kid’s ages 9 through 15. They even have a name for it. It's called dusting. A take off from the Dust Off name. It gives them a slight high for about 10 seconds. It makes them dizzy. A boy who lives down the street from us showed Kyle how to do this about a month before. Kyle showed his best friend. Told him it was cool and it couldn't hurt you. It's just compressed air. It can't hurt you. His best friend said no. Kyle was wrong. It's not just compressed air. It also contains a propellant called R2. It's a refrigerant like what is used in your refrigerator. 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, buzzed. It decreases the oxygen to your brain, to your heart. Kyle was right. It can't hurt you. IT KILLS YOU.

The horrible part about this is there is no warning. There is no level that kills you. It's not cumulative or an overdose; it can just go randomly, terribly wrong. Roll the dice and if your number comes up, you die. IT’S NOT AN OVERDOSE. It's Russian roulette. You don't die later. Or not feel good and say I've had too much. You usually die as you're breathing it in. If not, you die within 2 seconds of finishing "the hit." That's why the straw was still in Kyle's mouth when he died. Why his eyes were still open. The experts want to call this huffing. The kids don't believe its huffing.

ODDNESS2HER

Friday, October 20, 2006 11:24 PM

I...have no words. I can't begin to imagine the awfulness. I'm so, so sorry for you and your family.

SIGNYM

Saturday, October 21, 2006 12:07 AM

Not me... but it was forwarded to me. As usual I check this stuff out on Snopes. Turns out that the police officer lives in Cleveland.

I know about "huffing". But the thing that makes this so insidious is that Dust Off has no smell. I'm sure it seems benign and perfectly safe to the kids who try it.

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Reality sucks. Especially when it contradicts our cherished ideas.

ANTIMASON

Saturday, October 21, 2006 12:33 AM

that is a pretty aweful story... and for a 10 sec high at that. it actually kind of makes me mad at the establishment, for outlawing marijuana, when in reality its potential for harm is less than many of your common household products

RUE

Saturday, October 21, 2006 12:56 AM

Helium has the same effect and risk. Some people breathe it from helium-filled balloons either to get a slight buzz or for the funny way you sound, like Donald duck.

Other people breathe nitrous oxide from whipped cream cans.

GINOBIFFARONI

Saturday, October 21, 2006 4:23 AM

some places in Canada, many times with the native population the same thing happens with lysol and other cleaning products...

I think the key to the problem is education, not so much keeping the products out of the home. It would be impossible to keep all dangerous products away, better the risks are known.

GEEZER

Saturday, October 21, 2006 2:40 PM

Here's a link to the Snopes article, which has quite a bit more info on this problem. A sad thing all round.

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/dustoff.asp

"Keep the Shiny side up"

MOHRSTOUTBEARD

Saturday, October 21, 2006 6:26 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
Helium has the same effect and risk.

Yeah, that must be why they use it as a component in breathing gas for deep-sea divers. . .

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"Remember, there's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over."

CITIZEN

Sunday, October 22, 2006 10:50 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by MohrStoutbeard:
Yeah, that must be why they use it as a component in breathing gas for deep-sea divers. . .

Pure Oxygen is poisnous, yet we need it to survive.

Inhaling Helium can be fatal because you're replacing Oxygen in the lungs with helium, so it is fatal for the exact same reasons this dust off accellerant is.

It's safe for deep sea divers because it's used as a COMPONENT of the gas mixture trimix and heliox because Helium leaves the body quicker than Nitrogen allowing shorter decompression stops.

Oxygen is still present in the lungs when breathing these gas mixtures, Helium is merely a replacement for Nitrogen as the inert breathing gas, because as I indicated breathing pure Oxygen for any great length of time is dangerous.

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

SIGNYM

Sunday, October 22, 2006 1:41 PM

Mohr- Chem 101- "Air" is a combination of gases: nitrogen (78%), oxygen (21%), water (0.5-2.5%) argon (0.8%), carbon dioxide (350-500 ppm), and trace amounts of methane, carbon monoxide etc.

It is the oxygen in the air that we need. BTW, it is generally not "lack of oxygen" that triggers breathing reflex but buildup of carbon dioxide. The average % oxygen in exhaled air is about 16%.

If you breathe ANY zero-oxygen gas you'll die, whether the gas is freon, helium, hydrogen, nitrogen or argon. But pure oxygen is almost as bad: it "burns" the lungs. Pure oxygen under pressure does the same thing throughout the body, causing symptoms up to and including seizures and death. ("oxygen poisoning")

There are several effects from "huffing" depending on the inhaled gas. The first is anoxia: the propellant displaces oxygen and causes a momentary feeling of syncope. In addition, the propellant nitrous oxide ("laughing gas") induces a sense of euphoria, while solvents containing toluene cocentrate in the same reward//pleasure areas of the brain as cocaine. www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/2002/bnlpr041502.htm

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Reality sucks. Especially when it contradicts our cherished ideas.

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