Education: Warning pupils of a whiff of danger: Solvent abusers try many ordinary household products - not just glue. One teenager's death spurred a mother into action, as Sarah Strickland reports

Six years ago Barbara Skinner walked into her bathroom and found her 16-year- old son slumped on the floor. A trained nurse, she put him in the recovery position, telephoned for an ambulance then rushed back to the bedroom to try to resuscitate him - but in vain. The post mortem revealed that Darren had died from lung damage caused by four months of solvent abuse.

Darren's death came as a complete shock to Ms Skinner. She had no idea he had been secretly inhaling household products - from aerosol deodorants and hair-sprays to lighter fuel. 'I had noticed that his pupils were dilated and asked him if he was on something, but he denied it and I believed him,' she says. 'My house was an Aladdin's cave of abusable products that I didn't know about.'

For the past three years Barbara has worked as a full-time volunteer with

Re-Solv, the Society for the Prevention of Solvent and Volatile Substance Abuse, in an attempt to increase public awareness of the dangers of substance abuse. She also visits schools in Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, talking to parents and pupils about her son's death and the lessons to be learnt from it: 'Seeing that the message is obviously getting across makes his death seem less futile.'

Inhaling substances is not a new phenomenon - in the last century snuff (powdered tobacco), ether, cocaine and laughing gas were all popular. Solvent sniffing by young people was first reported in America in the Fifties and in Britain in 1962 but it was not until the late Seventies that it aroused general public concern. In 1983, 56 per cent of press cuttings collected by the monitoring service at the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence concerned solvents.

In 1985 the Intoxicating Substances Supply Act was passed, making it an offence to supply anyone under 18 with a substance which the supplier knows or believes will be used to achieve intoxication. At that time the focus was on glue sniffing, and many shopkeepers refused to sell adhesive products to young people. According to Colin Chapman, convener of the Drugs Education Forum, that actually exacerbated the problem. 'It pushed young people into finding other things to sniff and they turned to more dangerous substances such as gases and aerosols. It's probably the single most dangerous activity, because it can kill first time.'

From the mid-Eighties, public interest in solvent abuse waned and attention turned to dance drugs such as acid and ecstasy. But deaths from solvent abuse continued to rise - from two identified by St George's Medical School in 1971 to 82 in 1983 and 151 in 1990 - most under 20, and 38 per cent were first-time users. Gas fuels caused the greatest number of deaths, followed by lighter fuel refill canisters and aerosols.

Far from being an overnight wonder, solvent and volatile substance abuse is the second highest unnatural cause of death, after road accidents, of people aged 10 to 16. about 10 per cent of secondary school children from all social backgrounds will try it.

Despite those statistics, the Department for Education last year ended funding for health co-ordinators in schools. According to Mr Chapman, there is now 'patchy' local co-ordination with many schools doing only the bare minimum required by the national curriculum.

'Drugs education comes quite low down the list of priorities,' he says. 'It often tends to come in the form of crisis intervention, as a reaction to finding kids sniffing. But bringing someone in to harangue them in a one-off assembly isn't enough - schools need an overall programme that builds up through the curriculum in a low-key and balanced way.'

That is exactly what pupils at Robert Smyth School in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, are receiving. When James Colquhoun, the head, agreed to let Ms Skinner come and talk to parents and pupils he was determined that it should be as part of a consistent programme. Parents were receptive.

'Three years ago they would have said: 'We don't have a problem here,' but now they are aware that their children may well engage in something of this type by the age of 17. There is no school in the land that can claim not to have a drug problem. In a little town like this we know what is out there on the streets - and it isn't cocaine.'

Parents were keen to know what could be used - the average home contains at least 30 sniffable products - how to recognise the signs of solvent abuse and what to do about it. Some were worried that education on the subject might encourage experimentation. 'But I never give them any information they can use to abuse,' says Ms Skinner. 'I only give the parents a full list of products.'

Judging by the reactions of 14- and 15- year-olds at the school it seems unlikely they will touch any of them. One pupil, Sam, was shocked by the statistics: 'I thought it was dangerous but not to that extent. I thought it was nothing major, that alcohol and smoking were the main problems. I had no idea so many died the first time they tried it. And I thought it was down to glue, I didn't know there was that much aerosol abuse around.'

Another, Michelle, says: 'If a friend was trying it out I would try and stop them, especially now we know all the facts. It wouldn't be a betrayal to tell someone else.'

The students say boys do it more than girls because they feel more need to prove themselves. A lot of information has sunk in. When asked about the possible effects they recall: 'It can make you violently sick'; 'It can give you hallucinations'; 'You can choke on your own vomit' and 'If you spray it into your mouth it can numb the back of your throat and suffocate you.'

Pupils appreciate being given the facts in a straightforward and unpatronising way. 'People like to rebel against what adults say,' says Michelle. 'It's better to let us make our own decisions rather than just tell us not to do something.'

Re-Solv: 0785 817885; Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence: 071-928 1211.