This email came through my actual work email as a warning for all teachers to be aware of this new thing Dusting!



Dust Off (or a variant of the product) is available everywhere there is a computer.



First, I'm going to tell you a little about me and my family. My name is Jeff. I am a Police Officer for a city which is known nationwide for its crime rate (Brisbane). We have a lot of gangs and drugs. At one point we were # 2 in the nation in homicides per capita. I also have a police K-9 named Thor. He was certified in drugs and general duty. He retired at 3 years old because he was shot in the line of duty. He lives with us now and I still train with him because he likes it.



I always liked the fact that there was no way to bring drugs into my house. Thor wouldn't allow it. He would tell on you. The reason I say this is so you understand that I know about drugs. I have taught in schools about drugs. My wife asks all our kids at least once a week if they used any drugs. Makes them promise they won't.



I like building computers occasionally and started building a new one in February 2005. I also was working on some of my older computers. They were full of dust so on one of my trips to the computer store I bought a 3 pack of DUST OFF. Dust Off is a can of compressed air to blow dust off a computer. A few weeks later when I went to use one of them they were all used. I talked to my kids and my two sons both said they had used them on their computer and messing around with them. I yelled at them for wasting the 10 dollars I paid for them. On February 28 I went back to the computer store.



They didn't have the 3 pack which I had bought on sale so I bought a single jumbo can of Dust Off. I went home and set it down beside my computer.



On March 1st, I left for work at 10 PM. Just before midnight my wife went down and kissed Kyle goodnight. At 5:30 am the next morning Kathy went downstairs to wake Kyle up for school, before she left for work. He was propped up in bed with his legs crossed and his head leaning over. She called to him a few times to get up. He didn't move. He would sometimes tease her like this and pretend he fell back asleep. He was never easy to get up. She went in and shook his arm. He fell over.



He was pale white and had the straw from the Dust Off can coming out of his mouth. He had the new can of Dust Off in his hands. Kyle was dead.



I am a police officer and I had never heard of this. My wife is a nurse and she had never heard of this. We later found out from the coroner, after the autopsy, that only the propellant from the can of Dust off was in his system. No other drugs. Kyle had died between midnight and 1 AM



I found out that using Dust Off is being done mostly by kids ages 9 through >15.



They even have a name for it. It's called dusting. A take off from the Dust Off name. It gives them a slight high for about 10 seconds. It makes them dizzy. A boy who lives down the street from us showed Kyle how to do this about a month before. Kyle showed his best friend. Told him it was cool and it couldn't hurt you. Its just compressed air. His best friend said no.



Kyle's death.



Kyle was wrong. It's not just compressed air. It also contains a propellant called R2. It's a refrigerant like what is used in your refrigerator. It is a heavy gas. Heavier than air. When you inhale it, it fills your lungs and keeps the good air, with oxygen, out. That's why you feel dizzy, buzzed. It decreases the oxygen to your brain, to your heart. Kyle was right. It can't hurt you. IT KILLS YOU.



The horrible part about this is there is no warning. There is no level that kills you. It's not cumulative or an overdose; it can just go randomly, terribly wrong. Roll the dice and if your number comes up you die.



IT'S NOT AN OVERDOSE. It's Russian Roulette. You don't die later. Or not feel good and say I've had too much. You usually die as you're breathing it in. If not, you die within 2 seconds of finishing 'the hit.' That's why the straw was still in Kyle's mouth when he died. Why his eyes were still open.



The experts want to call this huffing. The kids don't believe it's huffing. As adults we tend to lump many things together. But it doesn't fit here. And that's why it's more accepted. There is no chemical reaction, no strong odour. It doesn't follow the huffing signals.



Kyle complained a few days before he died of his tongue hurting. It probably did. The propellant causes frostbite. If I had only known. It's easy to say hey, it's my life and I'll do what I want. But it isn't.



Others are always affected. This has forever changed our family's life.



I have a hole in my heart and soul that can never be fixed. The pain is so immense I can't describe it. There's nowhere to run from it. I cry all the time and I don't ever cry. I do what I'm supposed to do but I don't really care. My kids are messed up. One won't talk about it. The other will only sleep in our room at night. And my wife, I can't even describe how bad she is taking this. I thought we were safe because of Thor. I thought we were safe because we knew about drugs and talked to our kids about them.



After Kyle died another story came out. A Probation Officer went to the school system next to ours to speak with a student. While there he found a student using Dust Off in the bathroom. This student told him about another student who also had some in his locker.



This is a rather affluent school system. They will tell you they don't have a drug problem there. So rather than tell everyone about this 'new' way of getting high they found, they hid it.



The probation officer told the media after Kyle's death and they, the school, then admitted to it. I know that if they would have told the media and I had heard, it wouldn't have been in my house.



We need to get this out of our homes and school computer labs. Using Dust Off isn't new and some 'professionals' do know about. It just isn't talked about much, except by the kids. They all seem to know bout it.



April 2nd was 1 month since Kyle died. April 5th would have been his 15th birthday. And every weekday I catch myself sitting on the living room couch at 2:30 in the afternoon and waiting to see him get off the bus. I know Kyle is in heaven but I can't help but wonder if I have died and gone to Hell.

that is so sad :(

Heart wrenching :(

:omg: I have that stuff, called Air Duster but still the same stuff. Luckily I keep it well out of reach as I knew that if you get blasts of air it can kill you but didn't know that this was a new craze. How do kids find out these things ?!!

God knows how Heather. And why? - we didn't seek thrills like this 45 years ago and I don't suppose those of you in your thirties did 20 years ago. What is it about the world today? The "romance" of drug use which is media fuelled (celeb trash stuff) leading to kids seeking out "harmless" household products?

See this - it's not so new by the look of things:

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/dustoff.asp

It used to be glue sniffing or tipex if you were into that sort of thing back in my day!

I just used to think why would you want to make yourself feel dizzy and sick and where was the fun in that? Then I found drink and the rest was history. Incidently booze is the worse thing that you could offer your body as it fooks up so many parts of of your body even compared to some drugs.

but so many of us consider it safer than "drugs" - me included - gawd knows how many times I've said "never again" - well I do go a long time between getting too smashed

Gulp

There's so much out there....

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/issue52.html#one



Thought you'd like to have a look at this link!

so the whole thing is a hoax? or just that email? what were those links to?

no, it's saying that it isn't a hoax but is true.

I have a similar product and it does carry the warning

No it is not a hoax - click on the link. Such a tragic story that I had to forward it on to all my friends who are parents.