[MissTwisties]

So before you come and flame me for posting this, it is in controversial topic, and it's about a kid who died from inhaling Dust Off product...just thought to pass it around for those in here who have kids. For the rest of you, if you don't care, just don't read it...simple as that.

If you work with kids, have children or grandchildren, PLEASE read this officer's story carefully. You can also verify the story at http://www.snopes.com/toxins/dustoff.asp
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.

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 oneof 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 530 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 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 cant 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 cant 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. ITS NOT AN OVERDOSE. Its Russian Roulette. You don't die later. Or not feel good and say I've had too much. You usually die as your 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 eye's were still open.

The experts want to call this huffing. The kids don't believe its huffing. As adults we tend to lump many things together. But it doesn't fit here. And that's why its 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.

Its easy to say hey, its 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 cant 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 wont talk about it. The other will only sleep in our room at night. And my wife, I cant 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 new 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 cant help but wonder If I died and went to Hell.
----------------

This Officer is asking for everyone who receives this email to
forward it toeveryone in their address book, even Law Enforcement Officers.

[xvrider]

Its called Huffing..And they do it with spray paint cans too and with whip topping cans, etc...The problem is that the inhalent sticks to your hemaglobin better than oxygen and you pretty much suffocate yourself..And you kill off brain cells too...So for some people they need to be careful...

[MissTwisties]

I understand but...who would think that "air" can kill you...that's probably what they were thinking, not knowing there was another agent in that can mixed with the air. Of course I know nothing about components of such products.

My neighbor told me about this new trend amonst teens, they choke themselves until they lack of air, apparently it gives them a buzz feeling for a few seconds/minutes and then they release whatever they are using to choke themselves to allow them to breathe...one teenage girl is dead not too long ago using this method. Apparently kids do not talk about it, it's almost a secret amongst them and they show their friends how to do it and it goes on and on from friend to friend....scarry to think that your kids might be doing this sort of shit.

[TheIglu]

Choking yourself has been around since before electricity. It's common for kids to do it.

While dust-off is "air", it's also flamable. That's sure some crazy air.

[Punjistick]

Originally posted by MissTwisties
My neighbor told me about this new trend amonst teens, they choke themselves until they lack of air, apparently it gives them a buzz feeling for a few seconds/minutes and then they release whatever they are using to choke themselves to allow them to breathe...one teenage girl is dead not too long ago using this method. Apparently kids do not talk about it, it's almost a secret amongst them and they show their friends how to do it and it goes on and on from friend to friend....scarry to think that your kids might be doing this sort of shit.

yeah I've heard it's played as a game called 'knock out'

[benVFR]

The can on my desk has Tetraflouroethane in it.

Material Info link

[RandyO]

Originally posted by TheIglu
Choking yourself has been around since before electricity. It's common for kids to do it.

While dust-off is "air", it's also flamable. That's sure some crazy air.

flamable as in fuel for a potato gun?

[ZX-12R]

I wonder what these dumb ass kids think the liquid in the can is when they shake it. Liquid air? As unfortunate as it is, I'm pleased to see the concept of survival of the fittest seems to be alive and well.

Everyone should know that if the chemical ends in -ane, -ene, -ol, or contains flourine, odds are you don't want it in your system.

[MissTwisties]

We're talking about young kids here...some are not even considered teenagers yet...kids my daughter's age, who will turn 10 yrs old in a few weeks, do that kind of stuff. I can tell you my daughter didn't learn in school all of the stuff yet (chemistry classes etc.)

[benVFR]

Your kids should know not to eat/drink/inhale chemicals before they can even read.

It is not rocket science. Didn't your parents ever put the little "sick face" stickers on household chemicals and say "NO" to you as a kid? Teach your kids so that they are smart enough to say no by the time another kid in school introduces them to it.

I'm from a big family we all ate something stupid at one point but I am talking when we were like 2-3 years old. By the time we were in school I am 100% confident none of my siblings would have been dumb enough to do this.

Are kids just overprotected today? I was riding my bike a couple miles from the house out on the street well before I was 10 too, lots of ways I could have gotten hurt doing that.

[legalspeed]

Mr. Yuck is green.

Mr. Yuck is mean!

[TheIglu]

Kids are also dropped off at every house to a waiting parent off the bus. Doesn't matter if the houses are 45 yards away from each other.

[hessogood]

I eat aerosol for breakfast

[Jaynnus]

Originally posted by hessogood
I eat aerosol for breakfast

I bet you pass alot of air before lunch!!

[MissTwisties]

Over protected? In a city like the one I live in, I don't think so! TOO MANY kids are NOT protected enough around here! Parents let their young children wonder on the neighborhood streets without even knowing where the kids are. It is sad, really...I wish it was like when my parents were young and it was much safer to be out on the streets and have fun. Even tho you might teach your kids at a very young age about what can be bad for them, sometimes you can't control EVERYTHING. My cabinets doors are locked in my house, no one have access to chemicals beside my Man God and I. Doesn't mean if my daughter goes to a friend's house that they won't do stupid shit. Altho I'm trying to be very carefull WHERE she goes, and if the parents will be present or not, and even then...I have learned the hard way not so long ago that even if there is a parent present on the premises...doesn't mean that the said "parent" is responsible enough to watch over their own kids and my daughter (like....letting kids swimming in the pool without an adult present....argh!!!).

You don't always do what you want with children, you do what you can, the best you know how, and hopefully your kids will make the right choices from what they learned from you.

[bentbryan]

No, it's true you can't control your kids and whatnot...

however, you can still smack the shit outta them!

[Jaynnus]

Originally posted by bentbryan
No, it's true you can't control your kids and whatnot...

however, you can still smack the shit outta them!

Or give them light sabre thingies and they will beat the crap outta each other!!

[Suf Daddy]

The propellant, NOT AIR, did the kid in.
You can die from drinking too much water too..........
Huff nothing.
-Suf Daddy

Originally posted by MissTwisties
I understand but...who would think that "air" can kill you...that's probably what they were thinking, not knowing there was another agent in that can mixed with the air. Of course I know nothing about components of such products.

<<<SNIP>>>

friend....scarry to think that your kids might be doing this sort of shit.

[MissTwisties]

...and that's what I was saying in the post you quoted...I just didn't kow the name for it! "propellant" thank you!

Originally posted by Suf Daddy
The propellant, NOT AIR, did the kid in.
You can die from drinking too much water too..........
Huff nothing.
-Suf Daddy

[Honclfibr]

When I used to work as a PC tech we'd sneak up behind each other, flip the can upside down, and squeeze the propellant on the back of the other guy's neck. Hehehehe...

Pay no attention to the "risk of frostbite" warnings on the can, the only risk is of extreme hilarity!

[TheIglu]

We used to have wars with it. Two cans upside down in each hand. Beware, that stuff messes up silk....

[HBerry]

Originally posted by TheIglu
We used to have wars with it. Two cans upside down in each hand. Beware, that stuff messes up silk....

When I worked at target we would use at least a can of this stuff each shift spraying each other.

[mikem317]

RIP. Very common in college life too.

[SEVENSGT]

we'd stand against a wall take a deep breath and have someone put all thier wieght into you to knock you out.....



That was stupid, but I dreamed I was in disneyland 1 time