Aerosols and ‘dusters’

Aerosols used for spray paint, hair spray, air freshener and computer cleaners [known as dusters] may contain butane, propane, fluorocarbons, toluene and chlorofluorocarbons [CFCs].

One of the most frequently abused products is the computer cleaner, principally because many children and adolescents use computers and the spray can is often bought unwittingly by their parents to clean it.  In slang terminology this is referred to as a ‘duster’.

Gas duster, is also known as canned air.  As a product it is used to clean electronic equipment and other sensitive devices that cannot be cleaned using water. The can comes with a straw to direct the forceful wind that it can produce. The gases inside the can have been compressed to the point that they have become liquid, and they evaporate before leaving the can, since the valve draws from the top. Despite the name "canned air," the cans actually contain gases that are much easier to compress into liquids, such as difluoroethane, trifluoroethane, or tetrafluoroethane.  Hydrocarbons, like butane, were often used in the past, but their flammability forced manufacturers to use fluorocarbons.

Since gas dusters are one of the many inhalants that can be easily abused, many manufacturers have added a bittering agent to deter people from inhaling the product.

One genuinely helpful web site said it cannot understand why we use them.  A portable fan blowing air onto the keyboard would work just as well or even a hair dryer on ‘cool’.

Effects of inhalation

Not only do these substances not give you any form of spiritual experience – apart possibly from the hallucinations caused by hypoxia or delirium caused by poisoning  – they can lead to permanent injury and death.  You may get a rush from the endorphins your body produces to counteract the fact you are in deep trouble from the hypoxia and the toxins.  The risks include:

• Hypoxia  - can occur due to inhaling fumes from a plastic bag, or from using proper equipment but not adding oxygen or room air.
• Frostbite - When a gas that was stored under high pressure is released, it cools abruptly and can cause frostbite if it is inhaled directly from the container
• Burns – many of these products are volatile and can catch fire or explode, especially when combined with smoking.
• Incidental injury - users may also injure themselves due to loss of coordination or impaired judgment.  For example

• Pneumonia 
• Cardiac failure  or arrest
• Vomiting and nausea – which due to the sedated state can lead to aspiration of vomit
• Hearing loss  
• Limb spasms and seizures
• Damage to the central nervous system 
• Brain damage -brain damage is typically seen with chronic long-term use as opposed to short-term exposure
• liver and kidney damage
• Death  - death from inhalants is generally caused by a very high concentration of fumes. Deliberately inhaling solvents from an attached paper or plastic bag or in a closed area greatly increases the chances of suffocation.  Death from solvent abuse occurs most commonly from aspiration of vomit while unconscious or from a combination of respiratory depression and hypoxia.   Deaths typically occur from complications related to excessive sedation and vomiting. 

The following chemicals in this class of product can cause the additional problems shown…..

• Benzene use can cause bone marrow depression.
• Toluene can damage myelin.

Furthermore, if you don’t die you can so mess up your mind that you don’t know what you are doing or become violent, dangerous and even permanently psychotic.