For alternative products and safer use of inhalable products:

School Supplies - Choose Safer Products

Inhalable Products and Alternatives.

On-line training for parents on inhalants. Learn what inhalants are, the damage they cause, how to recognize signs of use, and how to talk to your children about inhalants. This free interactive training will take only about 20 minutes, and you can complete it in more than one sitting if you prefer. Educate yourself so you can protect your children from the dangers of inhalants.

Inhalant Abuse Prevention: Staff Education and Student Curriculum. Information about inhalants for adults who work with children or youth. Age-appropriate lessons are included. Although designed for the school classroom, these lessons can be used in any setting with children and youth.

Do you know what these words mean?
Your kids probably do.

One in eight eighth-graders in Chesterfield County reported using inhalants, everyday products whose vapors are intentionally breathed to produce a high, according to the 2007 Chesterfield County Youth Needs Assessment Survey (see survey page for details). Nearly 5 percent of eighth-graders reported using an inhalant in the 30 days previous to the survey, greater than twice the national average.

Inhalants are the only substances used more frequently by young adolescents and children. Use often begins in elementary school and peaks in eighth grade.

Kids use inhalants because they are cheap, available, legal and unrecognized by adults.

Inhalants are deadly. They can cause death even the first time they are tried. And use can result in significant brain, nerve, lung and other organ damage. Kids don't know this, because they are learning about inhalants from their peers, not from their parents or other adults. They don't understand the dangers.

Inhalants are not drugs, though when misused they produce drug-like highs. They are poisons, pollutants and fire and safety hazards.

Our community needs to address this silent threat to our children.

It is important that parents and other adults understand how to talk to children and teens about inhalants. Because products that can be abused are so readily accessible, conversations about inhalants should not increase curiousity or increase the risk of experimentation. SAFE highly recommends that parents visit the Web site link above to learn more about inhalants and how to teach their children about them.

Other resources:

Alliance for Consumer Education (ACE) - a national nonprofit educational foundation whose flagship program is inhalant abuse prevention.

National Inhalant Prevention Coalition.- a comprehsive source for information, materials and resources on inhalants.