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 and messing
around with them. 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 PM my wife went down and kissed Kyle goodnight.
At 530 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 1am.

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 death

Kyle was wrong. It's not just compresses 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 died and
went to Hell.

Jeff

The Truth 

The "Jeff" of this email is Jeff Williams of Painesville Township, Ohio.

His son Kyle died on 3/2/05 after learning from friends about the brief high that can be
experienced from inhaling the compressed air that spews from a can of Dust-Off, which is
frequently sold at computer stores and used for cleaning hard-to-reach places in or on
computers.

Williams first posted his note on a web site then gave an interview to the Cleveland Plain
Dealer newspaper.

Dust-Off is from Falcon Safety Products, which has posted a warning about misuse of
Dust-Off.

Click Here:    http://www.falconsafety.com/default.aspx?pageid=46  for that page.

Dust-Off is just one of numerous products that is used by those who are involved in what is
called "inhalant abuse."

The National Institutes of Health has an extensive listing about it.