BUTANE SNIFFING A DEADLY 'HIGH'

Two Local Teens Die After Inhaling Gas With A Lethal Record

The deaths of two Montreal-area teenagers from butane inhalation have
sparked fears that a deadly craze bedeviling Britain has hit Quebec.

While experts say it's too soon to be alarmed, the easy availability of
butane gas and related products could be cause for concern.

On Monday, a 17-year-old Brossard boy was found dead in his home; a day
earlier, a 16-year-old died in similar circumstances in his family home in
Mont St. Gregoire.

The coroner hasn't released his report, but both victims are believed to
have died from inhaling butane, a petroleum derivative, from containers
found near their bodies.

In Britain, an estimated one in five youths has experimented with solvents
during the past decade. Typically, they "toot" pressurized gas from a
cigarette-lighter refill or aerosol can.

According to a report by St. George's Medical School in London, about 75
people die annually from inhaling butane.

An alarming three of 10 die during their first attempt to get high,
professor Ariel Fenster of the McGill University Office for Science and
Society said yesterday.

"That's a scary statistic - 30 per cent died during their first use because
it's so quick."

The syndrome has become known as Sudden Sniffing Death or SSD.

Butane can kill almost instantly, Fenster said, when sprayed directly into
the throat.

"Gas released under pressure comes out very cold," he said, so the skin
freezes, the throat swells and the user suffocates.

It also has a disastrous effect on the heart, inducing an irregular
heartbeat - from racing to cardiac arrest. Users die of either suffocation
or heart failure.

The toxic gas also deprives the brain of oxygen.

Butane has eight times the death rate of the drug Ecstacy, Fenster said:
"It's much more lethal."

There's a movement afoot to stop butane sniffing in Britain by getting such
gas refills off store shelves, but here it's readily available in a variety
of products, from stove fuel and cigarette lighters to aerosols like hair
spray and deodorants, said Thomas Brown, director of the addiction research
program at the Douglas Hospital.

Popular in indigenous communities, solvents are favoured by children
because of their accessibility, he said.

They don't even have to leave the house to find these chemicals, he said.

"Children can go into their parents' tool kits and find glue or lighter
fluid, put it in a handkerchief and sniff it. It's easy to get and easy to
administer," Fenster said. "The alarm bells are ringing about the effects
of acute intoxication."

Small doses are extremely toxic and can cause permanent brain damage,
memory loss and learning disabilities, he said.

"It can be quite devastating, especially in young, growing brains, which
are exquisitely sensitive," he said.

An estimated 30 per cent of U.S. adolescents have experimented with such
solvents.

No statistics are kept on the misuse of butane in Canada.

In 2001, the latest year for which data is available, Statistics Canada
reported 13 deaths - including 11 from intentional poisoning - from
solvents in youths age 15 to 19.

Catherine Saunders of Health Canada said solvents are less likely to be
abused than cocaine, hallucinogenics and marijuana.

While some have suggested that solvents might be a gateway to illegal drug
use, Allan Farkas, facility director of Portage West Island, a treatment
centre for youth with drug problems, said he hasn't seen an increase in
butane sniffing: "I haven't seen it as a trend from the kids I have in
treatment here. Some have experimented with solvents, but it's never a
first choice for substance abuse."

Albert Nantel, medical adviser to the Quebec Institute of Public Health,
said butane might be popular elsewhere - Britain, Brazil, the United States
- - but has yet to reach Quebec.

"I hope it's not a trend but just an unfortunate accident and that these
kids made a mistake about the product," Nantel said about this week's deaths.