'HUFFING' AS DANGEROUS AS DRUGS

The practice of huffing - inhaling common household solvents to get high -
triggers the same pathways in the brain as other drugs of abuse, including
cocaine and methamphetamine, a Long Island researcher has found.

Stephen Dewey, a senior scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, has
studied many drugs of abuse and added toluene, a common industrial solvent
used in paints, glues and other household products, to his brain imaging
work after elementary school children questioned him about "huffing." Since
1995, he has lectured at Long Island schools, showing slides of what drug
abuse does to the brain.

"I was shocked that the same brain regions, those that govern pleasure and
reward, become active when toluene is present," Dewey said.

"It's real, and kids can see that sniffing these solvents has immediate
effects and can cause damage to the brain and body," Dewey added.

According to statistics from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, one in
six children across the country experiment with huffing by the eighth grade.

Dewey and Brookhaven chemist Madina Gerasimov labeled toluene, a common
solvent, so that they could follow its passage in the body. They performed
the tests on mice and then baboons.

No one had ever measured the direct effects of solvents on the brain, but
it was thought that the chemical would not have specific targets but
disperse throughout the body evenly. The scientists injected the chemical
so that they could measure the exact level of exposure. Then, they watched
in surprise as the chemical headed straight for the brain's reward centers.
"It was just like other drugs of abuse," said Dewey. But unlike other drugs
of abuse, the solvent then disperses to other brain regions, including the
cerebellum, which plays a critical role in movement. After it leaves the
brain, it heads to the heart, liver and kidneys. Damage can affect memory,
learning, vision, and cause kidney failure and cardiac arrest.

The fact that toluene goes to the reward centers explains why huffing can
be addictive, and has become a gateway for other drugs of abuse, Dewey said.

The study was published Monday in the journal Life Sciences.