Glue sniffing: what can parents do?

Press, 13 March 1986, Page 16

Glue sniffing: what can parents do?

I by

MAVIS AIREY

Sniffing glue is probably well on its way to becoming one of the rites of early adolescence in New Zealand, believes Keith Pickens, author of “The Young and the Volatile,” a guide to coping with solvent abuse.

Although he agrees that for some of the children drawn to sniffing there will be serious consequences. For the great majority, he thinks it will be just a passing phase, “one of those problematic areas, like human relationships, learning to cope with alcohol, acquiring skill and sense on the highway, that all our young people have to cope with as they traverse the no-man’s land towards adulthood.

“Mercifully, most of them will do so without getting pregnant, or a conviction for drunken driving, and most of them will not become chronic solvent abusers.” Overseas data indicates that while sniffing may at times reach epidemic proportions in some New Zealand localities, and become fairly. widespread on a national basis, only a minority of our children (maybe no more than a fifth) will indulge in the practice, and only a very few will become chronic or habitual sniffers, he says. Sadly, sniffing may be

increasing among our young people at the present time, and given its association with poverty and unemployment, the worst may be yet to come. Even so, it is always necessary to keep a sense of proportion about various kinds of social problems. Even if we restrict our attention to the misuse of drugs by young people, juvenile drinking and smoking are far more serious problems than sniffing, he maintains.

Not that he believes we should turn a blind eye and hope for the best, far from it. What we do need, he says, is not sensational headlines and parental over-reaction, but sensible advice and guidance for both children and parents, and other kinds of helpful support and counselling. Contrary to popular belief, inhaling fumes for their intoxicating effects is not new, according to Keith Pickens. He says there are examples all through recorded history, going back as far as 10,000 years ago. But in the past it has always been adult behaviour.

“The unsettling development of the last 30 years or so has been the appearance of sniffing among children and adolescents. Indeed, nowadays inhalant abuse is regarded as almost exclusively a juvenile preoccupation.”

Although it is often referred to as “glue-sniff-ing,” one of the features of modern day sniffing is the very wide variety of products that are adaptable to the practice, many of them in every day domestic or industrial use. However, there is ample evidence that the least dangerous solvents are the most popular, and that a good many sniffers are content with small doses, infrequent sessions, and drop the habit fairly quickly, he says.

How dangerous is it?

Different kinds of sniffing carry different degrees of risk. After a period of intoxication the most usual result of a glue sniffing episode is a hangover: uncomfortable but quite temporary. Sniffing deaths caused by acute toxic reactions are quite rare, Keith Pickens maintains, and the question of whether sniffing produces irreversible brain, organ, or body damage is a topic of keen debate among researchers. At the moment, the best answer seems to be that it all rather depends on the substance employed and the dose and frequency of use. The only products which are known to have lethal potential for even first time sniffers are aerosols and fire extinguishers, he claims. Petrol is also very dangerous. But even when the socalled “safest” solvents are being used, things can go wrong. Deaths and injuries from falls and other accidents occur while sniffers are in an intoxicated state. Some of these, he maintains, are preventable. They result from sniffers being driven by adult disapproval and pressure, to congregate in out-of-sight and dangerous locations. “Ideally, sniffing should not be allowed to continue in places where younger children can observe the practice. Nor should it be tolerated in very public places, where it may be a defiant act, intended to give offence to adults in general and the police in particular. But where the power to move sniffers on exists, it should be used with some awareness of the additional risks that sniffing involves when it goes on in isolated and possibly hazardous places.” Apart from the dangers from the solvents themselves, or from the manner of their use, the other main kind of danger for sniffers comes from adult discovery and over-reac-

tion, he believes. “For many young people, the consequences of discovery can be as severe as any solvent-induced health problem or sniffing accident. Expulsion from school, being brought to the attention of the police, alienation from parents — all of these things can be visited on the heads of hapless young people discovered engaging in what may be just a bit of adolescent devilry.” Parents need help All too often, when children are found to be sniffing, the parents panic, the original situation is inflamed further, communication becomes difficult, the child is alienated and, very likely, continues to sniff, he says. Keith Pickens believes parents need to be given the knowledge to deal appropriately with their children, should they discover or suspect that they are sniffing. They also need help in coping with their own emotional response to what is often a very traumatic discovery, one that can produce not only panic and confusion, but feelings of guilt and failure as well. It is not the end of the world if you discover your child is sniffing, and you don’t need to feel guilty or ashamed, he stresses. Even children of loving and concerned parents feel peer pressure, and all

normal children are curious and eager to try something new. Nor do parents need to feel helpless —- there are things you can do either to substitute some other recreational activity, or make the sniffing relatively harmless. The parents of chronic sniffers however, may need special help. The most important thing in all cases is a good relationship between parent and child. Faced with evidence that he or she has a sniffer on the premises, the very first thing a wise parent should do is look to the preservation, enhancement or, if necessary, re-establishment of this relationship, he says. Can it be stopped? It is important for parents to have some idea of the limitations of the educational and other kinds of approaches to the control of sniffing, and the dangers of over-reaction, Keith Pickens believes. Attempts to frighten children out of sniffing are certain to be counterproductive, he says. On the one hand, they may alert the child seeking adventure to yet another forbidden thrill. On the other hand, because they tend to rely on extreme statements which even the most naive children might find hard to accept, they lack credibil-

ity. And in focusing on the most horrific (and rarest) outcomes of sniffing, over-reaction invariably ignores the commonest pitfalls and hazards. To arouse curiosity and interest in sniffing without giving children a realistic appreciation of the dangers involved is a recipe for disaster, he says. There are also hazards in information approaches warning children of the dangers, in that they may just act as consciousness raisers, or even shopping lists for experimenters. It is not possible, with our present knowledge, to suppress sniffing entirely, he maintains, and heavyhanded attempts to do so will almost certainly make matters worse. He does not believe that restricting sales of glue to minors would have the desired effect. “Steps of these kinds may produce a wave of juvenile shoplifting or house breaking. They may encourage unscrupulous adults to set up a glue black market, and thus may lead to the pushing of other drugs as well,” he warns. He agrees that manufacturers have a responsibility to do what they can to prevent any evils that might flow from misuse of their products by children. “Parents, retailers, and indeed all adults have the same responsibility with regard to any products that they sell, or use about their home or in their work.

“But it is simple common sense to classify solvents into more of less dangerous substances, and to concentrate on controlling access to the more dangerous substances, rather than the more commonly used ones. Attempts to prevent chil-

dren obtaining the latter, however well meaning, will probably do more harm than good.” There are similar kinds of problems with substituting harmless chemicals for more toxic ones, or in adding agents to a product, to make it unpleasant to sniff. If it was done on an ad hoc basis, sniffers would simply be shunted from the treated product to another untreated one. It might work if all possible substances were treated but this is probably impossible for technical if not commercial reasons, he believes. He thinks non-specific measures may be more effective.

Efforts to improve school climate and the relationship between teachers and pupils and between school and parents will have a number of benefits, including some degree of protection against sniffing. But the non-specific measures with the greatest potential for reducing the long-term attractiveness of sniffing are those that reduce school failure. Children making good progress in school and obtaining a sense of achievement are very unlikely to become chronic solvent abusers, he says.

“In general, experimental and social sniffers are quite normal children, firmly rooted in their peer group, maybe just a bit more adventurous than most. “Chronic abusers, on the other hand, typically suffer from deep-seated anxiety and insecurity. “A good relationship between parent and child is probably the best sniffing preventative and palliative around,” he concludes; _____

“I don’t know why we decided to start sniffing. I suppose it was something to do.” (child whose friend died after sniffing petrol)

‘‘To the kids, it’s a cool thing to do.” (parent of solvent abuser)

‘‘They have no other thrills in life but sticking their heads in a plastic bag — that’s a sad comment on society.” (youth worker)

“People associate glue sniffing with street kids, but it’s across the board.” (youth worker)

“They can get hold of glue too easily — questions should be asked.” (parent of solvent abuser)

“You’re always in doubt as a parent if you’ve done the right thing.” (parent of solvent abuser).