Inhalants Volatile solvents

Stewart RD, Fisher TN, Hosko MJ, et al Experimental human exposure to methylene chloride. Arch Environ Health 25 342-348, 1972 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Preliminary Estimates from the 1995 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Rockville, MD, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1996 Tenenbein M, PillayN Sensory evoked potentials in inhalant (volatile solvent) abuse. J Paediatr Child Health 29 206-208, 1993... 

Most general-purpose release agents have been developed for this market in part because of their low toxicity and chemical inertness and do not usually present health and safety problems. Some of the solvent dispersions require appropriate care in handling volatile solvents, and many supphers are offering water-based alternatives. Some of the sohds, particularly finely divided hydrophobic sohds, can also present inhalation problems. Some of the metallic soaps are toxic, although there is a trend away from the heavier, more toxic metals such as lead. The reactive type of release coating with monomers, prepolymers, and catalysts often presents specific handling difficulties. The potential user with health and safety questions is advised to consult the manufacturer directly. 

According to DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association 2000), inhalant use disorders include inhalant abuse and inhalant dependence. The DSM-IV-TR criteria for these conditions apply only to the use of volatile solvents, and... 

Volatile solvents are useful in industry and in homes because of their ability to dissolve fat. When inhaled, however, this property poses problems to the brain and the network of nerves that connect the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body, ...thus, because the brain is a lipid-rich organ, chronic solvent abuse dissolves brain cells, the American Academy of Pediatrics wrote in a 1996 policy paper about inhalants. The chemical vapors also damage the myelin sheath, the fatty wrapper that insulates the fibers of many nerve cells that carry signals. 

Vitamin D see Dextromethorphan Vitamin K see Ketamine Vitamin R see Methylphenidate Vivactil see Antidepressants Vivol see Benzodiazepine Volatile solvents see Inhalants... 

Volatility The tendency of a liquid to evaporate into a gas or vapor. On inhalation, organic solvents are in the form of vapors... 

Inhalant abuse is also termed volatile solvent abuse. It should be noted that many drugs besides those classified as inhalants can be administered by inhalation, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, fentanyl patches, and nicotine. These drugs are not volatile solvents and have different physical and chemical properties therefore, they are not classified as inhalants. Inhalants are chemicals that are volatile, meaning they can readily vaporize from... 

Figure 1.1 Inhalants are the fourth most popular drug of abuse among high-school students. In 2000, more than 2 million Americans aged 12 to 17 had used inhalants at least once in their lifetime. In this graph, the inhalants are grouped by type. Volatile solvents were the most popular type of inhalant used, with 3.9% of individuals inhaling glue, shoe polish, or toluene.

Inhalants are grouped into four categories (1) volatile solvents, (2) aerosols, (3) anesthetics, and (4) volatile nitrites. Most of these compounds are very commonplace products that were never intended to be inhaled to achieve intoxication. Today, more than 1,400 products are used as inhalants. 

John J. Woodward, and colleagues found that NMDA receptors were affected by volatile solvents. They found that the particular form of the receptor most predominantly expressed in the brain during adolescence is the most sensitive to inhalants. This could have serious implications, since inhalant abusers are most often adolescents, and this may partially explain the impaired cognition and learning functions noted in inhalant abusers. 

Since volatile solvents depress the central nervous system, including the respiratory center of the brain, prolonged use can be hazardous. Respiratory depression can progress to respiratory arrest, in which the user stops breathing and dies. Death by choking is another possibility. Some users of inhalants have choked to death on their own vomit. 

Beauvais, F. Volatile Solvent Abuse Trends and Patterns, Inhalant Abuse A Volatile Research Agenda, eds. C.W. Sharp, F. Beauvais, and R. Spence. Research Monograph 129. NIH Pub. No. 93-3475. Rockville, MD National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1992, pp. 13-42. 

Volatile solvent abuse or glue sniffing, is common among teenagers, especially males. The success of the modem chemical industry provides easy access to these substances as adhesives, dry cleaners, air fresheners, deodorants, aerosols and other products. Various techniques of administration are employed viscous products may be inhaled from a plastic bag, liquids from a handkerchief or plastic bottle. The immediate euphoriant and excitatory effects are replaced by confusion, hallucinations and delusions as the dose is increased. Chronic abusers, notably of toluene, develop peripheral neuropathy, cerebellar disease and dementia damage to the kidney, liver, heart and limgs also occurs with solvents. Over 50% of deaths from the practice follow cardiac arrhythmia, probably caused by sensitisation of the myocardium to catecholamines and by vagal inhibition... 

Absorption typically takes place through inhalation of the volatile solvent but may also take place through dermal exposure and ingestion of contaminated drinking water. During PERC exposure, urinary metabolite levels of trichloroethanol, total trichloro compounds, and trichloroacetic acid increased until the atmospheric concentration of the solvent reached 50-100 ppm. Little increase in these metabolites occurred at higher solvent concentrations indicating a saturation of metabolic capability. 

Many household and commercial neurotoxic products are intentionally inhaled for recreational purposes. The volatile solvents contained in these products are rapidly absorbed and carried to the brain, producing a feeling of euphoria. The practice, also known as glue sniffing or huffing, is widespread among adolescents and has resulted in numerous permanent neurological injuries and deaths when excessive quantities of neurotoxic solvents have been absorbed. 109 110 Table 18.5 lists volatile chemicals that are frequently abused by intentional inhalation and the products that contain these compounds. 

Steffee CH, Davis GJ, Nicol KK. A whiff of death Fatal volatile solvent inhalation abuse. South Med J1996 89(9) 879-84. 

Inhalants are a diverse group of substances that include volatile solvents, gases, and nitrites that are sniffed, snorted, huffed, or bagged... 

Most inhalants or volatile substances are solvents, but the DSM-IV-TR text attributes only five of the eight disorders associated with inhalants to solvents substance-induced psychotic disorder, anxiety disorder, delirium, persisting amnestic disorder, and symptoms of dementia. The association of solvents with dementia is more controversial than their association with mood disorders, but DSM-IV-TR does not recognize mood disorder resulting from solvent exposure. These inconsistencies probably reflect incomplete fidelity between the literature and the psychiatric nosology rather than current opinion. 

Quite apart from the harm solvents may do at concentrations greater than their TLV they can also overcome a person inhaling them by asphyxiation. The level of concentration at which this is likely to occur is 150 000 ppm (15%). The most volatile solvents will produce a saturated vapour of this strength at ambient temperature. 

When a person is exposed to a volatile organic solvent through inhalation, the solvent vapor diffuses very rapidly torough the alveolar membranes, fire connective tissues and the capillary endothelium and into fire red blood cells or plasma. With respiratory gases the whole process takes less than 0.3 seconds. This results in almost instantaneous equilibration between the concentration in alveolar air and in blood and, flierefore, the ratio of the solvent concentration in pulmonary blood to that in alveolar air should be approximately equal to the partition coefficient. As the exposure continues, the solvent concentration in the arterial blood exceeds that in the mixed venous blood. The partial pressures in alveolar air, arterial blood, venous blood and body tissues reach equilibrium at steady state. When the exposure stops, any unmetabolized solvent vapors are removed from the systemic circulation through pulmonary clearance. During that period the concentration in fire arterial blood is lower than in the mixed venous blood and the solvent concentration in alveolar air will depend on the pulmonary ventilation, the blood flow, the solubifity in blood and the concentration in the... 

The main path of entry of solvents from paints and varnishes to the body is by inhalation. Volatile paint compounds present a particularly high risk as do some forms of paint application (e.g., spray painting with the risk of inhalation of even less volatile and nonvolatile paint components). Other pathways should, however, also be considered as dermal contact. 

---