EDUCATING TO FIGHT 'HUFFING'

Mother Who Lost Son To Inhalant Abuse Aims To Boost Awareness

Aaron Wake was a 24-year-old graphic arts student in Door County when he
died this summer, a butane container near his body.

Wake breathed in cigarette lighter vapors to get high but it turned out to
be a lethal dose.

"When the policeman and the detective said to me (he was) 'huffing,' " said
his mother, Laurie Culp, "I had never heard of it. My daughter went on the
Internet the next day and learned about it.

"I was just shocked. It just didn't make any sense," Culp said in a
telephone interview Monday.

Wake's death is not an isolated incident. A 15-year-old boy found on a
Sussex recreational trail in July died from inhaling aerosol products. And
on Saturday in Wausau, three teens were burned in a huffing incident.

The three were sniffing fumes from aerosol cans of air freshener in a car
when one of them, a 15-year-old girl, lighted a cigarette and ignited the
can. The car's windows were blown out and the frame was damaged in the
explosion.

The 15-year-old girl was critically injured while her companions were
treated for their burns and released.

When Culp heard about the Wausau incident, she immediately thought about
her son and the pain his death has caused for her and her family.

Wake was someone who was always seeking a high, whether it was in climbing
mountains or trying marijuana and cocaine, said his mother, though he
apparently was not a regular user of those substances.

"That part of his personality was also the part that allowed him to get
that high, and huffing butane was one of the ways he did it," said Culp,
who is starting a foundation in her son's name to spread awareness of
huffing inhalants.

Unlike marijuana, cocaine or other illegal substances used to get highs,
huffing can be done with common aerosol products such as hair spray,
whipping cream or spray paint, which are found in most homes.

"When used correctly they're legal products," said Harvey Weiss, executive
director of the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition. But "it's not a
drug you're putting in your body. It's a poison."

Inhalants are usually the first substances children experiment with either
out of curiosity or peer pressure, Weiss said.

Since July 1996, the coalition has recorded more than 700 inhalant deaths
in the U.S., although Weiss said there have likely been more since there is
no accurate national data on the number of people killed by huffing.

Most victims were under 17.

Separate research by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and the U.S.
Consumer Product Safety Commission indicated that more than 90% of parents
surveyed did not believe that their child would use inhalants.

Judging by the number of estimated users and the number of injuries and
deaths, that means most parents have no idea their child is sniffing
inhalants, said Cynthia Georgeson, a spokeswoman for S.C. Johnson & Son Inc.

The Racine manufacturer of products such as Glade air freshener has been
involved in inhalant prevention efforts for 25 years "since we first became
aware that our products were abused in this manner," Georgeson said Monday.

"We believe it's a tragedy waiting to happen that can only be combated with
education," she said.

Three years ago, S.C. Johnson began sending out a free video narrated by
Michael Jordan's mother that illustrates the problem. So far, 35,000 videos
have given to schools and pediatric offices as well as parents or anyone
else who requests one.

The video is designed to make parents aware of the problem.

"I don't think parents are very informed," said John Hyatt, associate
director of IMPACT Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services Inc. in Milwaukee.

"If you find a beer can in your kid's room, you know what it is, but if you
find a shaving cream can in his room, you probably don't think to ask about
it," Hyatt said.

For more information about inhalants, visit the National Inhalant
Prevention Coalition's Web site at Educating to fight 'huffing'