Washington, D.C. March 15, 2007 -- The Partnership for a Drug-Free America® and the Alliance for Consumer Education (ACE) released a new public service announcement (PSA) today on the potential deadly consequences of “huffing,” the intentional inhalation of a substance to get high.

The PSA titled “Mike,” was released during a press conference sponsored by the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition (NIPC) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), to kick off National Inhalants and Poisons Awareness Week March 18-24.

Shot in the style of today’s trendy self-made videos, the 30-second TV spot, produced as part of an inhalant abuse awareness campaign by the Partnership and ACE, focuses on young teen boys, 14 or 15, who are in a park. Without actually showing them commit the act, viewers are given the impression that the boys are sniffing something then joking about it…until one boy falls to the ground. The boy’s friend laughs, until he suddenly realizes that something is drastically wrong. Then the mood turns to fear, when he realizes his friend is not conscious.

“The PSA, directed at parents, is admittedly grim,” said Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of the Partnership. “Sadly, it mirrors the stories that we hear about frequently from communities across the country where more and more teens are “huffing” and dying or getting seriously hurt. There is typically much anguish among parents because they simply were not aware that their child was engaging in this dangerous behavior.”

Sniffing concentrated amounts of vapors to get high can directly induce heart failure and death within minutes of repeated inhalations. “Sudden sniffing death” is usually associated with the abuse of butane, propane, gasoline, and gases and vapors found in any number of common household products.

According to a new report released at the briefing by SAMHSA, almost five percent of all girls between the ages of 12 and 17 used inhalants to get high in 2005, an increase from 4.1 percent in 2002, while boys remained fairly constant with 4.2 percent reporting use in 2005. Together, the data show that an estimated 1.1 million adolescents used inhalants in the past year, even though huffing these common household substances can be fatal.

The 2005 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS), released in March of 2006 showed that 20% of teenagers nationally, report having abused inhalants in their lifetime; yet only 5 percent of parents believe their child has ever abused inhalants. Parents are not aware or are in denial about the prevalence of inhalant abuse among teens. Further, 14 percent fewer parents believe their teens see great risk in abusing inhalants (70 percent in 2005 versus 84 percent in 2003). Parents are not discussing the risk of inhalant abuse with their teens as frequently as they discuss other substances, like cigarettes, alcohol, or marijuana. While 75 percent report discussing the risks of cigarettes “a lot” with their teen, only 50 percent report spending the same amount of time discussing the risks of inhalant abuse “a lot” with their teen.

“Researchers call what we’re seeing ‘generational forgetting,’” says Pasierb. “Today’s young teens didn’t benefit from the public-education campaigns and community outreach of the 1990s. This new generation of parents needs our help.”

“When we were tasked with creating this spot, we wanted a realistic depiction of what can happen to startle parents into opening their eyes to this growing issue,” said Michael Boychuk, creative director of WONGDOODY, the full-service marketing agency that created the PSA. “After conducting research with teens that have used inhalants, we had a better understanding of kids’ belief in their own invincibility. We wanted to show the reality that even experimenting with inhalants could be deadly.”

“Our aim with this PSA is to shake up the complacency among parents around the issue of inhalant abuse in the way that we know their kids can relate to,” said Joe Healy, President of the ACE Board of Trustees. “If it shocks them into taking action, becoming educated about inhalant abuse and talking with their kids about it, then we are succeeding in this campaign.”
ACE conducts wide-spread outreach across the country, targeting parents, school counselors and nurses with educational materials on inhalant abuse. The campaign also includes the involvement of the ACE Parent Resource Network, featuring families who are speaking out after losing a child to inhalant abuse.

The PSA can be viewed online here or by visiting www.drugfree.org.

See ACE’s Web site for more information on inhalant abuse and to request or to download an Inhalant Abuse Prevention Toolkit.