For the younger generation, “chroming” is the new huffing.
The dangerous practice is a means of getting high via inhaling hydrocarbons by misusing a variety of legal products, including permanent markers, aerosol deodorant, nail polish, metallic paint, computer duster, carburetor cleaner, paint thinners, gasoline and hair spray, said Dr. Anthony Pizon, professor of emergency medicine and chief of the division of medical toxicology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
The term comes from the aftereffect of inhaling metallic paints sprayed on a rag, which leaves a chrome or metallic residue on one’s face, Pizon said.
Common forms of chroming involve inhaling, via nose or mouth, directly from the container or from a rag or plastic bag saturated with the product of choice, said Dr. Betty Choi, a pediatrician and author of “Human Body Learning Lab: Take An Inside Tour of How Your Anatomy Works.”
“People have been inhaling fumes for centuries,” Choi said via email. “According to the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, inhalant abuse peaked in the 1990s and was downtrending over the last two decades. But in recent years, experimentation rates among teens have risen again.”
How many young people die from inhalant use each year isn’t conclusively known. But in March, a mother from the United Kingdom reported that her 11-year-old son died from a suspected cardiac arrest after he huffed toxic chemicals while at a friend’s house for a sleepover. That tragedy followed the news of the deaths of a 13-year-old Australian girl in 2023 and two 16-year-old boys in 2019. There have also been reports of hospitalizations and brain damage.
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