Joe Fergy Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 If you have children or grandchildren, PLEASE read this >officer's story carefully. You can also verify the story at snopes.com > > Dust Off (or a variant of the product) is available everywhere >there's a computer. > > ------------------------------------ > > > First I'm going to tell you a little about me and my family. My >name is Jeff. I am a Police Officer for a city which is known nationwide >for its 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 wont.< BR> > 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 which >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 wit h 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 1 AM > > I found out that using Dust Off is being done mostly by kids >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. Its 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. Its 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 finishin g >"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 >it's huffing. As adults we tend to lump many things together. But it >doesn't fit here. And that's why it's more accepted. There is no >chemical reaction. no strong odor. It doesn't follow the huffing >signals. Kyle complained a few days before he died of his tongue >hurting. It probably did. The propellant causes frostbite. If I had only >known. > > It's easy to say hey, it's my life and I'll do what I want. But >it isn't. Others are always effected. This has forever changed our >family's life. I have a hole in my heart and soul that can never be > fixed. The pain is so immense I can't describe it. There's >nowhere to run from it. I cry all the time and I don't ever cry. I do >what I'm supposed to do but I don't really care. My kids are messed up. >One won't talk about it. The other will only sleep in our room at nig >ht. And my wife, I can't even describe how bad she is taking this. I >thought we were safe because of Thor. I thought we were safe because we >knew about drugs and talked to our kids about them. > > After Kyle died another story came out. A Probation Officer went >to the school system next to ours to speak with a student. While there >he found a student using Dust Off in the bathroom. This student told him >about another student who also had some in his locker. This is a rather >affluent school system. They will tell you they don't have a drug >problem there. They don't even have a dare or plus program there. So >rather than tell everyone about this "new" way of getting high they >found, they hid it. The probation officer told the media > after Kyle's death and they, the school, then admitted to it. I >know that if they would have told the media and I had heard, it wouldn't >have been in my house. > > We need to get this out of our homes and school computer labs. >Using Dust Off isn't ne w and some "professionals" do know about. It >just isn't talked about much, except by the kids They all seem to know >about it. > > April 2nd was 1 month since Kyle died. April 5th would have been >his 15th birthday. And every weekday I catch myself sitting on the >living room couch at 2:30 in the afternoon and waiting to see him get >off the bus. I know Kyle is in heaven but I can't help but wonder > If I died and went to Hell. > > >---------------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fezmid Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 http://www.snopes.com/toxins/dustoff.asp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ch19079 Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 whip cream cans also use a propelent. by moving the nossel to the side just enough to let the gas out without the cream, they can inhale the gas and get a high for ~30 seconds. the gas is Nitrous Oxide. (laughing gas). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gross Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 Kids playing the "Pass Out"/Choking game is making the news now too. Kids have been doing it forever, but it seems they are doing it now more than ever and are dying from it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuckincincy Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 Kids playing the "Pass Out"/Choking game is making the news now too. Kids have been doing it forever, but it seems they are doing it now more than ever and are dying from it. 404725[/snapback] Sad stuff. I'm not sure about the article's claim of hundreds of deaths, though. I'd think that the cable and broadcast newsies would be wringing their hands about it and blaming anything that moves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
30dive Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 Very timely, I went to Staples this past weekend to get a can of "Dust Off" and when the clerk scanned the can, the screen asked him to check ID. He (the clerk) then told me I had to be 18 to buy the stuff. I asked him if he needed my ID, he declined....I'm 41, I figured kids had found a new way to get high, sad so sad.......whatever happened to good 'ol pot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Adams Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 .......whatever happened to good 'ol pot. 404765[/snapback] It's illegal. Dust-off, whip cream cans, choking yourself, etc, are not. Is anyone hearing this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fezmid Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 It's illegal. Dust-off, whip cream cans, choking yourself, etc, are not. Is anyone hearing this? 404782[/snapback] Actually, using Dust-off, whip cream, etc, in that manner IS illegal: http://www.falconsafety.com/default.aspx?pageid=94 (although I'm not sure what the crime would be...). CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Tomcat Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 whatever happened to good 'ol pot. 404765[/snapback] People put their head in the sand when it comes to pot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMadCap Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 Kids have been doing stupid things like this forever. A friend of my sisters died in high school from a similar inhalation accident, and this was in the 80's. I had a can of compressed "air" on my desk at home. My brother had a really dumb friend and the guy comes in and just grabs the can, puts the straw in his mouth and pulled the trigger. I was totally shocked. I asked him if he knew what was in the can, and he said "air". What most people don't realize is that canned "air" is not air at all, it is ususally a liquid substance called tetrafluoroethane. This is why sometimes liquid shoots out instead of "air" if you hold it incorrectly. You would be surprised how many people just assume that it is harmless. I am a chemist and work in a lab. We were having a meeting once where we were discussing where to dispose of these cannisters when empty. The safty guy said to just chuck them in the general waste can. I brought up the point that it contains a volatile, halogenated compound and few in the room thought I was correct. Scary... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuckincincy Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 Yep. My can of "Kensington Duster II" states: "CAUTION: VAPOR HARMFUL. Use adequate ventilation. Deliberately concentrating and/or inhaling vapors can be harmful or fatal and may cause heart irregularities, etc. and CAUTION: contents under pressure. Vapor harmful. May cause eye and skin irritation. May cause frostbite. Flammable. and Contains: 1, 1 difluoroethane". and some wording about applying artificial resperartion if inhaled, contact a physician immediately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gross Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 Actually, using Dust-off, whip cream, etc, in that manner IS illegal:http://www.falconsafety.com/default.aspx?pageid=94 (although I'm not sure what the crime would be...). CW 404802[/snapback] Yeah, but even "Drug Free Schools" have Dust-off, whip cream, etc in them... I think the point was that if you succeed at keeping drugs away from the kids, they'll just find other means to "get high." It's not really about legality as availability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweet baboo Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 Kids playing the "Pass Out"/Choking game is making the news now too. Kids have been doing it forever, but it seems they are doing it now more than ever and are dying from it. 404725[/snapback] what the hell? where are these kids growing up? anyone grow up in WNY and do this stevestojan? i grew up playing ghost in the graveyard (hide and seek), baseball and football with the neighborhood kids and friends Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoker2Buffalo Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 Some kids are just so damn stupid. I'm 16, and I could never think of doing this crap. I take that back, MOST kids are so damn stupid. It's pretty pitiful and disheartening that today's youth are wasting their lives away so young. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
col_forbin Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 Kids playing the "Pass Out"/Choking game is making the news now too. Kids have been doing it forever, but it seems they are doing it now more than ever and are dying from it. 404725[/snapback] This isn't new. I used to know some kids who did this when I was in middle school back in the mid-80's. I have done it once or twice myself. We use to call it "Going to Dreamland". Scary stuff indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muggins Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 Need to refocus children on sports and athletic activity if they are doing this stupid stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
respk Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 The only thing new about these stories is that the media finally found out about them. It is a tragic story so it gets ratings. Therefore the news conglomerates give it coverage 7x24. The fact is millions upon millions of kids have never done this and won't. Unfortunately, news isn't driven by what the majority does, it is based on what a small but very vocal minority(ies) does. The best comment "Need to refocus children on sports and athletic activity..." That is one sure way to know where your kid is and what he/she is doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crap Throwing Monkey Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 The only thing new about these stories is that the media finally found out about them. It is a tragic story so it gets ratings. Therefore the news conglomerates give it coverage 7x24. The fact is millions upon millions of kids have never done this and won't. Unfortunately, news isn't driven by what the majority does, it is based on what a small but very vocal minority(ies) does. The best comment "Need to refocus children on sports and athletic activity..." That is one sure way to know where your kid is and what he/she is doing. 404987[/snapback] And the fact is that kids who have been doing it, have been for a very long time. Glue-sniffing has been around longer than I have, and it amounts to the same thing: inhaling something that intereferes with respiration and/or oxygen absorption. Ban canned "air", and they'll find something else to use. Ban everything, and they'll hold their breath until they get dizzy (which is basically what they're doing already). It's not going away... ...and frankly, I'm not sure I'd want it to. If you're too stupid to know the difference between a high and oxygen deprivation, you are literally too stupid to breathe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eball Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 i don't have kids, and i still read. what's your point? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gross Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 Need to refocus children on sports and athletic activity if they are doing this stupid stuff. 404916[/snapback] Yeah, get them going on steroids and amphetimines instead... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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