UNDATED, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — As lawmakers are beginning closer investigations of vaping and E-Cigarette use, one company is reminding citizens of the dangers of huffing.
“Huffing” is when someone inhales a compressed substance to get high, such as canned air, which is usually used for cleaning dust out of computers.
Chemicals inside these cans, such as difluoroethane, have caused many adverse health issues in those who inhale them.
Canless Air CEO John Scherer says that there’s no way to measure what a “Safe” amount of huffing could be.
“There have been people that huffed one time and died,” Scherer said in an interview. “Everybody’s different, it’s how much of that chemical they can take into their lungs. Everyone can take in different amounts and nobody knows what’s gonna happen.”
Because of the unpredictable effects of huffing, users may suffer brain damage or death from one experience.
“It’s like russian roulette,” Scherer said. “When someone takes canned air, sticks in their mouth and pulls the trigger, they might as well have a gun in their mouth, because they could just die.”
Other risks can include the container freezing, which can cause frostbite symptoms.
“If you turn a can of canned air upside down and pull the trigger, it comes out like CO2, it freezes,” Scherer said. “So if you were to touch it or spray it on your skin, you could get frostbite.”
Scherer joined Canless Air in 2011 to help create the electronic “Hurricane” computer duster that would have no risks for abuse.
“We made this product, it recharges like your cell phone, it blows air at about 250 MPH at full speed, so you pull the trigger, but it’s safe,” Scherer said. “It’s just the air from the room.”
Scherer believes that canned air products need to be better controlled.
“People should look into the dangers of it, and they’ll wonder, why is that sitting on a shelf? Why can you walk into Wal-Mart and buy it? You can walk right in and buy it, take it outside and huff it,” Scherer said. “At a very minimum, it should be locked up, or not available at all.”
Canless Air is issuing the warning to remind citizens that inhaling anything that isn’t oxygen is unsafe. More information about the dangers of huffing can be found online at https://www.canlessair.com.
