Lawsuit Targets Stores for 'Huffing' Sales
April 23 -- A California group is suing chain stores Lowe's, Target and Home Depot for allegedly selling household products to children who could inhale them to get high.
"Huffing," popular among some teens and pre-teens, is the practice of inhaling chemical substances — such as glue, paint or paint thinner — to get high. Sometimes children will put products like fingernail polish remover or cement in a bag and inhale it. The practice can be deadly, said Dr. Drew Pinsky, an addiction expert and ABCNEWS consultant.
"There is an acute danger with this behavior, something called sudden sniffing death syndrome, where the circulating levels of adrenaline can sensitize the heart and people can die suddenly," Pinsky said.
Some people have also had suffocating experiences from huffing. Chronic huffing can also dissolve parts of the brain, Pinksy said.
The National Inhalant Prevention Coalition gets reports of about 100 to 125 deaths a year caused by huffing, but many parents do not realize that common household products can be dangerous to their children.
The JFK Center for Civil Rights has asked a California judge to order the national chain stores to change their business practices and repay the money that came from sales of products to minors that could be used for huffing. The center sent out minors to several stores in suburban Los Angeles to see if they could buy paint thinner.
"We found out that actually none of the retailers that we looked at were doing anything to enforce that law," said the JFK center's attorney, Oscar Valencia. "No child was ever asked for an ID. As a a matter of fact, one particular store put a happy face on a child as old as 10 years old who purchased a product, paint thinner, and on the first sentence on the back of the can is a warning."
The manufacturer's warning is that the product contains toluene, which is potentially deadly to these kids, he said.
The suit, filed April 11 in Superior Court in San Bernandino, Calif., alleges the retailers are violating a 1979 California law that forbids selling products that contain toluene to minors. Toluene is a common industrial solvent found in inks, paints, lacquers, resins, cleaners and glues.
