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The following story is completely true and no It is not by me.

>Subject: DUST OFF FOR COMPUTERS
Please read and forward if you like, unfortunately this is the latest
craze hitting our children in the school system.If you have children or grandchildren, PLEASE read this officer's story carefully. You can also verify the story at http://www.snopes.com/toxins/dustoff.asp;

Dust Off (or a variant of the product) is available everywhere there's a
computer; 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 wont.

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 one of them they were
all used. I talked to my kids and my two 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.
Just before midnight my wife went down and kissed Kyle goodnight.
At 5:30 am the next morning Kathy went downstairs to wake Kyle up for
school, before she left for work. He was propped 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 AM. 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. Its just
compressed air. It can't hurt you. His best friend said no. Kyle was wrong. It's not just compressed air. It also contains a propellant called R2. Its 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 you're 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 it's 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. 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 all seem to 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. This Officer is asking for everyone
who receives this email to forward it to everyone in their address
book,even Law Enforcement Officers.
 
Yeah that sucks, but once again shows the stupidity of some kids. I don't even know why kids try these "drugs". I mean are they so uneducated that if they see something new, they ask themselves, "I wonder if that can get into my system"? It's sad don't get me wrong, but he did it to himself.
 
ya that made me want to throw all of my dust off at moving vehicles (for the purpose of destroying the cans)
It's not good when you hear a story like that. makes you think about what this world is to when you cant clean without someone dying or getting hurt. :(
 
...man, this shocked me completely. And to tell that I was ready to buy that crap. Now, I can rely on one good thing: the vaccum

I feel sorry for them...really sorry :(
 
Well, there are a few discrepancies:

1) Canned air does not cause frostbite unless held upside-down. This allows the propellant, which becomes very cold when in use, to escape. It does not escape if the can is held upright.

2) Just because you accidentally get a shot of air up your nose doesn't mean you're going to die. He makes it sound like if it touches your skin, not only do you die, but you go to hell. There is a threshold, and, as thresholds in people go, they're different for everyone. It also annoys me how he's comparing it to a drug. It is not a drug. It is a misused substance.

3) There's a warning label on the can for a reason. Look on almost any can of pressurized material. Most have harmful gases used as propellants, and they have warnings specifically stating that INTENTIONAL INHALATION MAY CAUSE SEVERE HARM OR EVEN DEATH! I'm guessing a kid read this someday and got curious. It's too bad that the parents don't seem to notice it. The idea that he's asking everyone to get rid of it is like asking everyone to get rid of their bleach because it's poisonous. Yes, it will kill you, but only if you misuse it. Canned air is definitely not meant to be inhaled, and it should be kept out of the reach of children.

With all that being said, it is a very unfortunate loss for them.


EDIT> I scanned over the report again, and I realized that the whole first paragraph is pointless. Urgh. The more I look at this report, the more I'm beginning to think it's a scare story. I mean, of course your super duper retired police dog is not going to spot that can of drugs sitting next to your computer. Why? BECAUSE IT'S NOT DRUGS! And the whole bit about him crying and waiting for his son to come home.... it's sad but in terms of the report itself, it does nothing but push that fear. It sounds like a story about killer bees killing someone in Arizona or someplace like that and how they're migrating north! "OMG TEH BEEZ ARE COMIN!!!!1" Still not here..... No offense to the guy if it's true, but we need to be spreading the information, not the fear.

EDIT2> To lhuser: Vacuums are notorious for static shock to computer parts. I wouldn't recommend it.
 
You should use canned air properly in the first place. The only run in i came into with canned air was when I(being a jack---[<--filtered]) turned the can upside down and froze my friends hair. He had an afro and i was just tempted to do so... Well anyway people do stupid things i guess you can say the moral of the story is.
 
spank_fusion,

I agree with you with most of what you say. except the bees...sorry but they are here already been fighting them for 10 years now at the ranch and in town too. Some animals and people have been lost already. I think the count for this year is 1 horse, 8 dogs, numerous birds and 3 people dead. I think there has been some what of about 40 people hospitalized from the bees....yep they are here and it is permanant.

anyway I just can't get over the no drugs were going to get passed the mut bit. That to me sounded more like he didn't trust his own children. There is a big difference in trying to talk with kids about things than there is giving the the fith degree over it...Sorry but him being a cop kind of makes me lean to one way.

There is a proper use for everything, There is proper procedures for the use of things too.. I just don't think it was in place in that story.
 
cans of fresh air aren't the first substance to be abused, and they won't be the last...

IMHO, I agree with bob, you're warned about this type of stuff and how dangerous it can be, if you're willing to risk your life don't be all that surprised when you loose it!
 
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