Inhalation of Computer Duster Spray among Adolescents: An Emerging Public Health Threat?

Abstract

Background: Anecdotal reports and recent medical examiner and poison control center studies suggest that computer duster spray (CDS) inhalation is an emerging public health threat. However, there is a current dearth of empirical data on CDS use. Objectives: Study aims were to examine the prevalence, frequency, correlates, and modalities of CDS use among a treatment sample of antisocial youth. Methods: A battery of standardized psychosocial instruments was administered via interview of 723 Missouri adolescents in residential care for antisocial behavior. Results: Lifetime CDS use was prevalent (14.7%) in this young service population (97.7% of whom participated). CDS users were significantly more likely to report histories of perinatal injuries or illness, traumatic experiences, suicidality and physician-diagnosed mental illness, and evidenced higher levels of psychiatric symptoms, antisocial attitudes and behaviors, and polydrug use than CDS nonusers. Conclusions and Scientific Significance: CDS use was endemic in this treatment sample of adolescents and associated with a range of clinically significant comorbidities. Current findings describe an underrecognized and potentially dangerous form of substance misuse that has rarely been studied but that may be of growing importance.

Keywords:

• antisocial behavior
• computer duster spray
• co-occurring disorders
• inhalant abuse
• solvent abuse

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was supported in part by grants DA021405 (Natural History, Comorbid Mental Disorders, and Consequences of Inhalant Abuse, M. O. Howard, Ph.D.) and DA15929 (Neuropsychiatric Impairments in Adolescent Inhalant Abusers, M. O. Howard, Ph.D.) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. E. L. Garland, Ph.D., was supported by Grant Number T32AT003378 from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Declaration of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest in the presentation of these findings.