GIRLS' DEATHS RAISE 'HUFFING' FEARS

Hearing about three girls huddled in a small room in Moore with a can
of gasoline brought back horror stories for educators who thought the
huffing problem was in decline.

Investigators haven't determined whether the girls were sniffing the
gasoline before they were killed by a flash fire Wednesday afternoon,
but that was the first thing Keith Foreman thought when he heard the
news.

"That scares me," said Foreman, Sulphur's middle school
principal.

"We had a problem eight years ago with kids doing gasoline, now we're
dealing with crack. I used to have a case once or twice a week."

He said the problem was so bad in Sulphur, the local Wal-Mart reported
to police any kid who bought "a lot" of spray paint.

However, he thought the problem was going away.

A study released last month by the University of Michigan said huffing
has declined since 1995 when it peaked, but the decrease has been gradual.

The study said about 10 percent of eighth-graders had sniffed a
chemical to get a high in the last year.

Another study a year earlier by the National Parents' Resource
Institute said 20.5 percent of kids will use inhalants at least once
in their lives, nearly 5 percent before the eighth grade.

To get high, kids spray or pour organic solvents and volatile
substances onto a rag or into a paper bag and hold it over their
mouth, "huffing" the fumes. Some skip putting the chemicals into a bag
and just "sniff" from containers.

More than 1,000 common household products contain such chemicals,
which is why it is hard to regulate. The most common chemicals used
are glue, gasoline and aerosol paint.

Huffing can cause heart failure and suffocation.

Foreman said kids only "huff" or "sniff" when they can't get other
drugs.

Huffing causes an intoxication much like alcohol -- stimulation, loss
of inhibition, followed by depression.

Oklahoma City schools begin telling their students about the dangers
of sniffing chemicals in the fifth grade. The topic also is mentioned
during annual drug awareness weeks at elementary schools, middle
schools and high schools.

District spokeswoman Daphney Dowdy said every middle school and high
school in the district has an adult assigned to at-risk children aside
from counselors. Schools also have student support groups that meet
weekly to talk about issues such as drugs.

The state Education Department is working on a new health curriculum
that will include a discussion on inhalants. The drug education
information is to be finished this spring or summer.

Stan Mavity, who handles drug education for Hennessey Public Schools,
said most of fifth-grade to eighth-grade students in his district know
about huffing and sniffing.

He said drug education teachers who talk to the kids tell them to
avoid inhaling fumes even by accident. He said students are told to
paint in well ventilated areas and never to sniff paint or gasoline.

He said a few students approached him at the middle school Thursday
asking why the Moore girls had a gasoline can.

"I explained some people smell the fumes to get an artificial high,"
Mavity said.

"They said, 'Why would anybody want to do that?'"