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First of all, inhalants are deadly. Now girls, I don't mean to scare you, but the truth is, people die from inhaling these gasses or fumes. When a person sniffs one of these products, the chemicals steal oxygen from their blood. This is bad because we need oxygen in our blood. In fact, every part of our body needs oxygen to live. If our blood doesn't have enough oxygen, it can't deliver oxygen to our hearts, and if our heart doesn't get the oxygen it needs, it won't work right. Our heart can beat too fast or it can beat unevenly, and if one or both of these things happen, the person could have a heart attack. I don't know about you, but all I think of when I hear this is, "Why in the world would I want to do that?" If you use inhalants, you can harm many different parts of your body.
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Brain |
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Inhalants hurt the brain very quickly. The brain needs oxygen, just like the heart does. And, if you guessed that inhalants take oxygen away from the brain, too, you guessed correctly! When the brain doesn't get enough oxygen, it makes a person feel light-headed and dizzy. It might also cause a person to faint. In class, our teacher told us a story about a girl who sniffed fumes from a spray can, passed out, and vomited. The really sad part of the story is that the girl never woke up after she passed out. Now, that is enough to keep me away from sniffing inhalants. If a person uses inhalants for a long time, she might suffer from brain damage. People with brain damage often lose their ability to think, walk, or talk as well as they did before they ever started using inhalants. |
Lungs |
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This is pretty scary, so listen to this; people can suffocate from using inhalants. This might happen because inhalants keep oxygen out of the lungs and the central nervous system so that the person stops breathing. I don't know exactly what it feels like to suffocate, but I know how bad it feels when I hold my breath for a really long time. I can only imagine that suffocating feels 100 times worse. |
Nose and Ears |
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Sniffing inhalants can make you to lose your sense of smell. Can you imagine never smelling freshly baked chocolate cookies again? I sure can't. Sniffing inhalants can also make your nose bleed. Yuck! Sniffing inhalants over a long period of time can also cause you to lose your hearing. People lose their hearing because the cells that send messages to the brain about hearing get destroyed by chemicals in some inhalants. I like myself too much to make my nose bleed and to damage my hearing; how about you? |
Liver and Kidneys |
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When my teacher explained what my liver and kidneys do for my body, I totally understood how sniffing inhalants damaged them. Now, I get to share this information with you. (Oh yeah, I don't mind at all if you share any of this information with your friends.) The liver is one of the biggest organs in the body and it helps us digest everything we put into our body. The liver also helps us filter out waste and harmful substances from the blood. We need at least one kidney to live (most of us are born with two of them). Kidneys work like the liver in that they filter out harmful substances that are in our blood. The kidneys are responsible for creating urine, and that is how we get rid of the poisons in our body. Can you guess what I am going to say next? If you guessed that I am going to tell you that inhalants are poisons, you are right. And, when we bring these poisons into our body, we make our liver and kidneys work extra hard, which might cause them to break down and not function as well. |
Muscles |
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People who use inhalants a lot will lose a lot of their muscle strength. The size and tone of their muscles will also shrink. After I heard about what inhalants could do to me if I used them, I couldn't understand why anyone would ever use them. Now, if you are worried about impressing your friends and "fitting in," then you need to know that most pre-teens and teens have never tried inhalants. Remember, all inhalants are dangerous. Using them even one time can cause damage that is serious and permanent. So, if you know someone who is using inhalants, remember what I have told you and remember how bad they are for you… and please let a trusted adult know-your friend's life is worth it. |
