THE DANGERS OF ‘ORGANIC SOLVENT SYNDROME’
The British Medical Journal recently reported a case of “Cardiac arrest by inhalation of deodorant spray.” The culprit wasn’t any of the “active” ingredients, but rather the gas used as a propellant to expel the contents from the container. Butane can cause cardiac arrest when inhaled in an abusive fashion by people looking for a “high.” According to the case report, a 19-year old man sprayed deodorant under a towel placed over his head and took some deep breaths. They were the last ones he would ever take. Butane is fat-soluble, which means it can readily cross the blood-brain barrier, a network of cells that protect the brain by excluding water-soluble substances. Once it enters the brain, butane can cause euphoria, relaxation and an altered mental state. But it can also result in a permanently altered state, namely, death. Unfortunately, the inhalation of volatiles goes beyond deodorants, with vapours from lighter fluid, nail polish remover, shoe polish, computer dust spray and glue also being abused. Volatile substances can be inhaled from a bag (bagging), directly from a container (sniffing), or by placing a cloth soaked with a chemical over the nose and mouth (huffing). Even sub-lethal exposure can cause headaches and vertigo as well as a feeling of lightheadedness. I have been following the rather extensive literature on “inhalants” ever since I had a personal encounter with the solvents used in whiteboard markers. Although I use slides extensively in most of my lectures and public presentations, I’ve always found the blackboard to be very useful when teaching organic chemistry. Chalk dust never bothered me much, but when whiteboards and erasable markers came on the scene, the university made the switch in a number of lecture rooms, supposedly for a cleaner environment. I had no choice but to use the markers. They gave me a headache. Figuratively and literally. The markers didn’t erase as well as chalk, and the sweet smell of the solvent used to deliver the ink was nauseating. But there was another effect. After a long lecture, I found I was positively giddy. I had always been high on organic chemistry, but this was something else. What was this intoxicating solvent? Having ready access to a lab and gas chromatography equipment, it wasn’t difficult to identify the solvent. It turned out to be mostly a mixture of xylenes and toluene, chemicals produced from petroleum that have numerous uses in industry. Their effects have been extensively studied with nausea and headaches documented at an exposure of 100 parts per million. When concentrations in the air reach over 200 parts per million, symptoms include dizziness, irritability, a slowed reaction time and a feeling of being “high.” Long-term occupational exposure has been linked with insomnia, tremors, hearing loss and a type of brain damage referred to as “organic solvent syndrome.” I had no way of determining exactly what my exposure was, but clearly, it was not insignificant. While I was quite happy to write the molecular structure of xylene on the board and elaborate on its chemical reactions, I had no desire to inhale it. I lobbied to get the blackboards back, and when our main chemistry lecture theatre was renovated, the whiteboards were gone, and the good old blackboards had made a triumphant return. And they came equipped with “dustless” calcium carbonate chalk that replaced the “dusty” ones made of calcium sulphate. Frankly, the dusty ones are better, but neither gives me a headache or a high. Supposedly, xylene and toluene are no longer used in dry erase markers, having been replaced by the safer isopropanol, better known as rubbing alcohol. The xylene experience did send me scurrying to look more deeply into “organic solvent syndrome” and I learned all about the practice of sniffing model airplane glue, correction fluid, spray paint, cookware coating sprays, gasoline, felt-tip markers, hairspray, deodorants and amazingly, cow dung. Some thrill seekers even try spraying butane straight from a canister down their throat. This can lead to a nasty surprise because as liquid butane evaporates, it sucks heat from the surroundings, potentially freezing tissues in the throat and in the lungs with possible permanent damage. At least with cow dung, this problem doesn’t arise. Although we don’t have much of this commodity lying around our streets, in Malaysia apparently there is ready access. Some young Malaysians have discovered that sniffing the methane released from a fresh sample of cow dung affords a pleasurable experience. The technique involves placing a tin can with a hole punched in the top over a sample of the dung and inhaling. Bad idea. An even worse idea is to light a cigarette in a car that has been filled with butane vapour, as a number of euphoria-seeking young men have discovered. Butane is extremely flammable! There isn’t much euphoria to be experienced in the emergency room.