Dust Off

[june72]

my sil posted this on another board.......thought i would post it for ya'all
so sad.....sad


Subject: Dust Off- a serious danger to our kids (please read)
Dust Off- A Serious Fatal Hazard

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. 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 them
they were all used. I talked to my kids and my 2 sons both said they had
used them on their computer.. 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. At 11:45 PM my wife went
down and kissed Kyle good night. At 5:30 AM the next morning Kathy went
downstairs to wake Kyle up for school, before she left for work. He was
sitting 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 a.m., just a few minutes after his mother kissed him for
the last time.

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. It's just
compressed air. It can't hurt you. His best friend said no. Kyle's dead.
Kyle was wrong.

It's not just compressed air. It also contains a propellant.. I
think its 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
your 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 its 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 odor. 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. They don't even have a DARE or PLUS program 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 know about 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 ****. That's what I am living
in.

[crazytimes]

This isn't a joke! [Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]

Wow! I admit, we'd play around with this stuff at work sometimes (spraying on hands, on the counter to watch it disappear) but I had no idea it was so dangerous! Very sad.

[Sis359]

This is incredibly scary stuff. Thanks for posting it, I had no idea.

[june72]

yw and I honestly had no idea until i read this myself...i used to keep it on my desk.........not no more even thou my kids are small this is scary stuff.

[rleer]

I'm so sorry for your loss. My heart and thoughts go out to you and your family.