There is an aspect of health class that every student in my school fears. And, shockingly, it’s not the “growing up discussion” on puberty. It’s not even the lesson on tobacco. It’s huffing. Huffing is an issue commonly overlooked. While everyone is worrying about tobacco and alcohol use in juveniles, huffing is forgotten.


I’m fairly certain that a number of people who end up reading this will have little to no knowledge about huffing. So, for those of you who don’t know, huffing is when you take a liquid- let’s say computer screen cleaner or Lysol- and you smell it. You just open it up and take a good whiff of it. Now, this may sound harmless. But such things contain chemicals in it that should not be inhaled by humans. The chemicals give you a high, or a buzz. But the chemicals can also kill you. And this isn’t just something that happens over a long time of huffing. It could kill you the first time or the hundredth. In fact, a startling average of 125 children, teens, and young adults die each year from this killer. Huffing, formally known inhalant abuse, is addicting, like any other drug. Any kind of aerosol, such as hairspray, Lysol, and computer screen dusters and cleaners are common culprits of inhalant abuse, as well as gasoline and butane.


Huffing is scary and real. A fourteen-year-old-boy was found dead in his room, a can of computer duster in his lap. And, even worse, a straw leading from the boy’s mouth to the can in his lap. He figured if he could huff it, he could drink it. Huffing-related deaths are often either caused by inhaling the substance, called sudden sniffing death syndrome, or, either accidentally or purposefully, ingesting the substance. Neither way is a good way to die. So, do yourself a favor and don’t huff. Trust me, dying is bad on it’s own, but it’s worse to die a statistic.

Don’t let your last breath be spent abusing inhalants.