We live in Chesterfield County in a relatively secluded dead-end neighborhood. About two months ago, we had to call a repair man because our heat pump upstairs wasn’t working right. He discovered it was low on Freon, even though there were no leaks. Weird. Just two weeks later, our other unit wasn’t working right. Same repair guy. Same result: Low Freon, no leaks. He told us it was possible that somebody had been coming into our back yard and huffing Freon.
We had never heard of such a thing! Who would do this, and why?!?
So I did a little research. I Googled “kids huffing Freon.” I was shocked. The first news article that came up was from – are you ready for this? – Chesterfield, Virginia. It was a story on NBC12 published on May 4, 2011 titled A deadly addiction, teens huffing Freon from AC units. Please click and read the whole story. Here are some notable quotes:
While you sit in your home with your air conditioner running, you could be feeding a teen’s deadly addiction. Kids, right here in our area, are huffing chemicals from air conditioning units to get high.
Mona Casey knows about the life-threatening danger. Her 15-year old son Charles was addicted to Freon. In 2006, he picked up the habit from a friend after school.
Teens will pass out with a bag over their head. They can die from heart-failure, brain damage or suffocation. Mona said two weeks after her son learned to huff he was dead. His lifeless body found sprawled out on a neighbor’s yard.
At first, we were angry and scared that it seemed like somebody had trespassed in our backyard and tampered with our property. Now, I’m just sad knowing that somebody’s child – likely the child of somebody who lives in our neighborhood – was engaging in a very dangerous, potentially deadly act. Right in my back yard.
(I will admit at this point that we don’t have definitive proof, but it’s a suspicious set of circumstances – enough to warrant preventive action.)
Mona Casey, the mother who tragically lost her son to Freon inhalation in 2006, started an organization called United Parents to Restrict Open Access to Refrigerants (UPROAR). She advocated for new regulations requiring caps on a/c units. As of March 1, 2011, all new homes in Virginia must have a refrigerant locking cap on their HVAC systems. For homes built before that, you can have a locking cap installed.
During our second repair call, the repair man installed locks on our units free of charge. He said that with force, somebody could break them but if he had to come out again, he would know they had been tampered with. While we did not file a police report this time, next time we definitely will. I stopped a policeman in our neighborhood a few days ago and told him what happened and asked if we should have reported it. He said yes and that they’d actually had a similar call recently. Trespassing and theft are criminal acts. Perhaps a visit from the police would be just the right first step to getting help for a child with a deadly addiction.
Here are some other facts about inhalant use:
- Even a single use of Freon can result in death.
- In 2009, a national survey showed that 11.7% of 9-12th graders had used inhalants at least once in their lifetime (down from 13.3% in 2007), with younger teens and girls having higher rates. (CDC YRBS)
- In 2005, the inhalant use in Chesterfield County, Virginia was twice the national average of inhalant use among 8th, 10th and 12th graders which has since reduced by 44% due to multiple community interventions. (Chesterfield SAFE)
Preventing Substance Abuse Together
What you can do to help:
- Secure your air conditioning unit with locking caps. Visit the Chesterfield SAFE website for a list of companies who will install them for free! (Some will install during a service or maintenance call; others may install at any time.)
- Learn more about inhalants and huffing Freon. Chesterfield SAFE (“Preventing substance abuse together”) and Uproar have great information and resources.
- According to Chesterfield SAFE, teach your child from an early age about the danger of products that are poisonous and can be harmful or deadly if inhaled. Avoid talking about them as drugs that make you high, but rather emphasize that they are poisonous and harmful when misused.
- If you think someone is using inhalants, contact the Virginia Poison Center at 1-800-222-1212. If somebody is addicted or cannot stop, seek professional help right away. Do not ignore the problem.
About Mary Beth Cox