What Is ‘Dusting'? The Viral TikTok Trend That Has Led to Teen Deaths
Experts are warning parents of a popular new TikTok trend that is leading to teen deaths. The dangerous practice is called 'dusting,' and, no, it has nothing to do with chores. Dusting involves inhaling computer duster spray to get high, and it's already caused multiple fatalities.
Dusting, also known as 'chroming' or 'huffing,' involves inhaling the chemical difluoroethane, which is often found in duster spray per Treatment Magazine. This method of getting high has been around for decades, although, it seems like TikTok has sparked a resurgence in the trend. The outlet also reported that dust removers are more likely to result in death or severe bodily harm than any other inhalant.
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Dr. Randy Weisman, who leads the intensive care unit at HonorHealth Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center, told AZ Family that this can make people feel drunk and euphoric for a couple minutes — but even that is long enough to damage the liver and lungs. Just one huff can be irreversible and potentially deadly.
'This is extremely concerning,' Dr. Weisman told the outlet. 'When they inhale these chemicals in the gas, it will actually replace the oxygen within their lungs and within the rest of their body.' It leads to 'failure of the liver, heart failure, disease of the lungs.'
The risk of death is huge for this risky trend. Recently, a 19-year-old from Arizona named Renna O'Rourke died of sniffing death syndrome after dusting. Her mother Dana O'Rourke told a local NBC outlet that her daughter 'was just the most caring, beautiful soul I've ever, ever known.'
According to Dana, her daughter went into cardiac arrest and spent several days in the ICU before being declared brain dead.
Many other teens have died from this, according to Dr. Weisman. Even celebrities like Aaron Carter have died as a result of huffing compressed air, per PEOPLE.
One of the scary parts of this trend is how easy it is to buy the keyboard cleaner. Dana told NBC that Renna and her boyfriend bought the keyboard cleaner online and had it delivered via Door Dash.
'There's no ID required. It's odorless,' Dana told AZ Family. 'It's everything kids look for. They can afford it, they can get it, and it doesn't show in mom and dad's drug test.'
'We want to make sure that we use our tragedy so that no other parent has to experience looking at their child on life support and a ventilator and not breathing on her own all because she huffed out of a can,' Dana told NBC.
Elena Zavalza, program director with notMYkid, gave Good Morning Arizona tips for parents who want to protect their kids from this trend in a recent appearance.She said to look for bloody noses, a lot of dizziness, nausea, and thirst; check for missing household items and chemicals that come in aerosol sprays; and pay attention if your child is using a lot of rags, which might be used to spray the chemical in before inhaling.
Talk to your teens and tweens about this by 'approaching it … out of curiosity' instead of accusing children, Zavalza said. Instead, ask them, 'Have you heard about this?'
'And even if they have experimented or tried to or thought of doing it, having that conversation with them of the risks, which could be death,' she added.Best of SheKnows
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