A draft report commissioned by the Northern Territory Government has found
petrol sniffing has reached crisis levels in Central Australia, with some
sniffers as young as four. It estimates there are about 200 sniffers across
10 remote communities and in Alice Springs. Each of the 10 communities were
found to have between four and 10 longterm chronic sniffers, all of whom
suffered some form of brain damage. The number of boys sniffing petrol on
communities outnumbered girls by three to one. The report said the
Territory Government had adopted a "crisisled approach" to the problem
"There has been a pattern of sniffing reaching crisis levels in a region or
community, funding for shortterm solutions being provided, the problem
being apparently reduced and the funding withdrawn". Maggie Brady, an
expert in the area, has called for youth workers to be employed on all
communities to create social activities and establish a peer group envir
onment among adolescents which discouraged sniffing. The report found that
just one Central Australian community employed a youth worker, and that in
the past three months, that person had helped reduce the number of sniffers
in the community from 30 to three.