Inhalant Deaths In US

Historic Development of Inhalant Death Collection

Families United Against Inhalant Abuse Foundation (FUAIA) is one of the first, and most prominent organizations in the United States to identify and document inhalant deaths throughout the Country.  Previous “inhalant focused” non-profits and inhalant product manufacture funded NGO’s consistently fail to adequately address these deaths and once stated that there were only approximately 125 inhalant deaths annually in the Country.  Spokespersons for these same organizations also stated that inhalant deaths were difficult to identify and were therefore often missed when attempts were made to create a clear picture of how large these death numbers were.  These same organizations tended to focus discussions around the less dangerous inhalant products (felt markers, white-out, nail polish, etc.) while leaving the deadly inhalants like Dusters out of the conversation.  It is for this reason, that Families United Against Inhalant Abuse took on the task of identifying the true number of inhalant deaths in the Country and the products involved.  Families United Against Inhalant Abuse wanted to know if inhalant abuse had truly declined as the chemical industry had implied, or if it was once again on the rise.  The Foundation also wanted to know which inhalants are involved in the majority of deaths and what the demographics of the inhalant users are.  The updated inhalant death information obtained by FUAIA clearly details the true impact of inhalant abuse in the U.S. and is charted in this section of the website for a reader’s review.

Obtaining Inhalant Death Data

Inhalant death data can be difficult to locate and is dependent on how a state organizes this information.  Many states organize their death numbers by county and do so through the local Coroner’s or Medical Examiner’s Office.  A handful of states like Florida, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia and a few others retain this information in a statewide database.  Although all counties and states in the Country are required to draft an “Annual Medical Examiner’s Report,” due to time constraints, the majority of these documents focus primarily on facility workload numbers, societal deaths (auto accident, normal loss, homicide, suicide, etc.), and the accidental drug overdoses of the more prevalent drugs (fentanyl, cocaine, alcohol, marijuana, prescription drugs, etc.) being used.  Inhalant deaths are typically grouped in the “other” accidental drug overdose category.  A researcher most often must contact the Medical Examiner’s Office to obtain details of the “other” drug death group if they want actual death numbers and the inhalant products involved.  Some ME offices may refuse to provide this data or request a fee for the information, but most will be accommodating when the request is related to a research project.  In states where Medical Examiners report to a statewide database, a type of “Vital Statistics” program is often used where the public can access death data by performing a personal query.  These searches are more time consuming but will yield accurate data when used correctly.  FUAIA always tries to obtain the Year of the Death, the Age, Gender, and Ethnicity of the deceased, and the inhalant Chemical/Product and the Medical Examiner’s notes if possible.  If this information is not shown in the charts, it was unavailable.

In this website section, FUAIA has updated all data of the previously charted Medical Examiner inhalant deaths (by County/State) and has added many new states to this assortment.  Several new charts displaying the comparison of DFE inhalant deaths to all “other” inhalants combined, have been created using these same ME numbers for most states.  Additional new charts using data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Clearinghouse Data System (CPSCCD) for the years 2007-2022, have been created so that inhalant death numbers can be viewed for all states in the U.S.  The CPSCC Data is a voluntarily provided collection of product injuries and deaths.  The data is collected from; the www.saferproducts.gov reporting portal, obtained death certificates, Medical Examiner and Coroner Reports (MECAPS), Injury/Potential Injury Incident Files (IPII), and online news sources/clipping services. As previously stated, this data is provided on a voluntary basis therefore, the numbers represented are only a portion of the actual inhalant deaths occurring in the United States.  FUAIA has created a few charts where the CPSC Clearinghouse Data deaths are compared to the “actual” Medical Examiner deaths, highlighting the discrepancies in how inhalant deaths are recorded and underrepresented in the Country.

FUAIA has also provided a brief summary of the relevant data in each chart and has provided concluding statements of the culmination of the data findings at the end of this section.  It is imperative to understand that these reported deaths do not include individuals who were killed by an inhalant driver, inhalant drivers who were themselves killed, or deaths occurring from black-out injuries.  FUAIA believes this data will be very eye-opening for readers who are unfamiliar with the inhalant abuse crisis in the United States and who are of the belief that inhalant deaths are very few in number throughout this Country.

California (Los Angeles and San Diego Counties)

Los Angeles County

The previous data presented by FUAIA for Los Angeles County, CA included inhalant Deaths from 2007 – 2019.  The current data extends this timeframe to 2022, with all Inhalant Chemicals/Products being identified and both Difluoroethane (DFE or 1,1-Difluoroethane) and Helium being charted separately as previously presented.  Inhalant deaths by Year of Death, Ethnicities (Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian, Asian, Pacific Islander), Gender (Male, Female), and Grouped Ages (0-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50+) are again identified for review.  Throughout all of FUAIA’s data charts and discussions, Difluoroethane (DFE) overdoses will be considered Duster deaths since this is the connection made by all Medical Examiners in the Country.

As presented, there were 279 inhalant deaths identified for the 2007 – 2022 year period which is an increase of 62 deaths from the 219 found from 2007 to 2019.  There were 18 deaths in both 2020 and 2021, while there were 21 deaths in 2022.  The year 2022 is an interim period which indicates that it wasn’t a full 12-month year.  Regardless, it appears that inhalant use/deaths are remaining stable and possibly increasing in Los Angeles County, CA as of 2022.

The top two inhalants being used/causing deaths in Los Angeles continue to be Difluoroethane (120) and Helium (121).  These death numbers are basically equal with the primary “years of most use” for Helium being 2010 – 1013 (16,12,11,13).  Difluoroethane deaths remain moderate from 2007 to 1019 at 5-8, then increase sharply from 2020 – 2022 (9, 11, 20).  The use of Difluoroethane which is in Dusters, has been identified by FUAIA and the Consumer Product Safety Commission as the inhalant contributing to the most inhalant deaths in the Country for over a decade.

As demonstrated in the 2007 – 2022 data, Caucasian males are still the Ethnicity and Gender most often represented in the inhalant deaths in Los Angeles County.  One interesting point to make is that the number of Hispanics dying from inhalant abuse in the 2007 – 2019 data has increased 4.7 % in the 2007 – 2022 data. In opposition to this Hispanic inhalant death increase, the Caucasian deaths have decreased 3.4% when comparing the same two data totals.  The increased use of Dusters from individuals of all societal Ethnic groups can be the cause for this transition.

Regarding the data for Gender and Age, Males dying from inhalant use (211) far exceed Females (68) at a rate of 3 to 1 in the years 2007 – 2022 in Los Angeles County.  Males from 20 to 39 years of age are the individuals dying most often from inhalants, while Females 20 to 29 (22), and then 30 to 39 (16) are those dying most often during this same period.  There were 12 Males and 7 Females under the age of 19 who have died from inhalants in LA County.

When reviewing only Difluoroethane (Duster) deaths in Los Angeles County from 2007 – 2022, there were 83 Males and 37 Females who died inhaling Duster.  The males were primarily 30 – 39 years old while the Females were 20 – 29 years old.  The 120 total deaths were equally divided between Caucasians and Hispanics with 55 identified for each ethnic group.  The remaining 10 deaths included 6 African Americans, 2 Asians, and 2 Pacific Islanders.  Twice as many Males die from DFE inhalant use than Females, with both Hispanics and Caucasians dying from this product equally.

The Helium “only” death data from 2007 – 2022, demonstrates a similar pattern as with DFE,  where there are three times as many Males (94) dying from Helium inhalant use than Females (27).  The majority of the Males (27) and Females (12) were over the age of 50, with Males 20 – 29 being the next largest group at 24 deaths.  The second largest number of Helium deaths for Females (4, 5, 6) were women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s.  The number of Caucasians dying from Helium inhalant use (86) far outnumber the Hispanic (12) and the Asian groups (15) at approximately 4 to 1.  It is apparent that Helium is an inhalant used by older Caucasian individuals in Los Angeles County, CA as opposed to DFE Dusters.

San Diego County

The previous inhalant death data presented for San Diego County, CA included the years 2007 – 2017.  The updated data being presented includes inhalant deaths from 2007 – 2021, and continues to present the inhalant Chemical/Products involved in the deaths along with the Year of each Death, Gender, Age, and Ethnicity of the deceased.  Although San Diego County is a very popular location in Southern California it is much smaller than Los Angelas County in geographic region and in population.  With the population being much smaller in size than Los Angeles, it is only logical that the death numbers will also be reduced.  In relation to the inhalant Chemicals/Products being used, they are relatively the same.

The previous inhalant death data from 2007 – 2017 identified a total of 72 deaths for that time period, with 56 of them being attributed to Difluoroethane.  The current data that encompasses 2007 – 2021, identifies a total of 87 inhalant deaths with 70 of them being attributed to DFE overdoses.  The second largest number of deaths from both collections are attributed to Nitrous Oxide (NO) with a total of 7 by the end of 2021.  The other inhalants used include Toluene, Acetone, Propane, Butane and a few others.  The use of Dusters containing DFE is the primary inhalant contributing to deaths in this county.

Inhalant Deaths – California (San Diego County)

Difluoroethane was the only inhalant chemical charted individually by FUAIA for San Diego County because the other products yielded only 1 to 5 deaths during the 2007 – 2021 time period.  As with Los Angeles County, Caucasian Males represent the largest number of DFE deaths at 55, while the Females documented only 15 deaths.  There were 58 Caucasian deaths, 7 Hispanic deaths, 4 African American deaths, and 1 Native American.  The largest number of Males who died from DFE were 30 – 39 years of age, while the largest number of Female deaths were individuals from 40 – 49 years old.  Although this is a much smaller population than presented by the Los Angeles County data, it is still evident that DFE Dusters are the product contributing to the largest number of inhalant deaths in San Diego County, CA.

On a side note, when reviewing the Consumer Product Safety Commission Clearinghouse Data 2007 – 2022 (charted at the end of this multi-state evaluation section), the Total number of inhalant deaths listed for California is 108, with 94 listed for DFE and 14 attributed to all “other” inhalant Chemicals/Products.  Adding both Los Angeles and San Diego Counties ME inhalant deaths together yields a total of 366 inhalant deaths for 2007 – 2022, with 190 DFE deaths and 176 “other.”  The inhalant death numbers for just these two counties exceeds the CPSCC Data by 258 deaths.  It is obvious that the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Clearinghouse Data numbers are far from complete when considering California has 58 counties.  This is just one of the many examples (by state) where inhalant deaths are extremely underrepresented in the U.S.

All Medical Examiner inhalant death data for Virginia is presented in a unique format by their Medical Examiner’s Office.  Due to this unusual reporting format, both the previously presented (2007 – 2018) and the updated data (2007 – 2020) charts organize the number of inhalant deaths for each variable (Year Deceased, Chemical/Product, Age and Gender, and Ethnicity) in a separate display.  The deceased individuals identified are not directly connected to their personal variables when the data is grouped in this format.  A researcher cannot determine the personal characteristics (Gender, Age or Ethnicity) or associated inhalant involved for these deceased people from this organized format.  Additionally, the Age groupings used by the Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office are different from those used by FUAIA.  Although these charts are organized in a different manner, they are similar enough to enable a reader to draw a conclusion regarding the characteristics most often represented in these inhalant deaths.

The updated data for Virginia covers inhalant deaths from 2007 – 2020 (interim), an extension of 2 years from the previous collection.  The number of inhalant deaths that occurred from 2007 to 2018 was 128.  Since 2018, an additional 42 individuals died in the following 2 years making the 2020 total 170.  By the end of 2018, 103 of the 128 inhalant deaths were due to Difluoroethane (Dusters) with 117 of the deceased being Caucasian.  Of the 117, 80 were Males and 37 were Females, all from 25 to 44 years old. From this previous data, the years with the largest number of deaths were from 2016 through 2018.

Continuing to look at the newer charted inhalant death data from 2007 – 2020, the majority of the 170 inhalant deaths were Caucasian (155), with 116 of the total deaths being attributed to Difluoroethane (Dusters).  There were 112 Male and 58 Female inhalant deaths with all belonging to the 25 to 44 year-old age group.  The years with the highest number of inhalant deaths from the 2007 – 2020 data were 2016 through 2020 (interim).  There were 12 Chemicals identified along with a miscellaneous group of unidentified Products. 

Virginia is one of the 8 states in this section where the Medical Examiner numbers were charted by FUAIA for comparison with the Consumer Product Safety Commission Clearinghouse Data.  As previously mentioned in the early portion of this website data section, the CPSCC Data is voluntarily collected by the Consumer Product Safety Commission for all states in relation to unsafe products involved with injury and death.  FUAIA believes these CPSCCD inhalant death numbers are far less than most State Medical Examiner “actuals.”  It is for this reason that FUAIA has charted comparisons for some states where inhalant death numbers are prevalent.  In the case of Virginia Medical Examiner “actuals” vs. Consumer Product Safety Commission Clearinghouse Data, a discrepancy is overwhelmingly evident.  For the years 2007 – 2022 (interim), the CPSCC Data lists a total of only 84 inhalant deaths, while the Virginia ME numbers identify 189 deceased individuals.  From these numbers, the CPSCC Data indicates that only 79 of these deaths are attributed to DFE, while the Virginia ME data identifies 138 DFE deaths.  In addition, the CPSCC Data lists only 5 “other” inhalant deaths, while the Virginia ME identifies an additional 51 “other” inhalant deaths.  The discrepancy between these two inhalant death reporting data bases is a difference of 80 deaths.  When considering the CPSC collects this data in the same manner for all states in the Country, there is definitely an overwhelmingly number of undocumented inhalant deaths in the United States.

The state of Florida, as with Virginia, maintains statewide Medical Examiner numbers regarding all aspects of drug overdose deaths annually.  Although each county maintains their own ME Office, there is a state Medical Examiner’s Commission and Board which oversee the entire process for the state.  There is one Medical Examiner’s Annual Report which is posted online each year.  FUAIA has been tracking Florida’s inhalant death numbers since 2006 and have identified Florida as having the largest number of “documented and publicly shared” Difluoroethane Duster deaths in the Nation.

The previous Florida Medical Examiner data charted by FUAIA was from 2007 – 2018.  During that period, there were a total of 572 inhalant deaths in the state with the two largest number of deaths being attributed to DFE Dusters (352) and Helium (129).  Because Florida Medical Examiners don’t provide data for the other variables (Age, Gender, and Ethnicity), the number of Deaths by Year and Chemical/Product are the only variables for the ME data at this time.

The newly posted Medical Examiner data continues from 2018 to 2022.  In that updated 2-year period, the number of inhalant deaths increased from 572 to 726, an increase of 154.  From the 726 inhalant deaths, 140 of them were due to Difluoroethane use while 44 were from Helium.  The next most often documented product was Nitrous Oxide with 20 deaths listed.  Although inhalant death numbers in Florida are high every year charted, 2011 through 2019 were the largest with the numbers 46, 53, 49, 70, 83, 61, 65, 52, and 41.  To make a decision as to which years depicted the largest number of inhalant deaths in Florida is difficult because 2020 continued to have 33 deaths along with 2021 and 2022 having 43 and 25 deaths respectively.

Because Florida has such an extremely large number of inhalant deaths identified by the Medical Examiner’s data, FUAIA included a review of the Consumer Product Safety Commission Clearinghouse Data for a comparison.  As previously presented for Virginia, this data does include Gender and AGE, along with Difluoroethane and “Other” inhalant numbers.  It can be noted that as with Virginia, there is a large discrepancy between the Medical Examiner’s “actual” inhalant death numbers and those collected by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

As previously stated, the Florida Medical Examiner inhalant death numbers identify 726 inhalant deaths from 2007 – 2022.  In comparison to this number for the same time period, the Consumer Product Safety Commission Clearinghouse Data identifies 253 inhalant deaths.  From the ME total of 726, 485 of the inhalant deaths were attributed to Difluoroethane.  The CPSCC Data identified 241 of their 253 deaths as Difluoroethane overdoses.  The CPSCD Data identifies only approximately one-third of the Medical Examiner “actual” deaths for the state of Florida.  That is a tremendous disparity of 473 inhalant deaths that are not being recognized by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.  This data discrepancy is even more concerning when this is the U.S. Agency that oversees the safe use of products like Duster.

In reviewing both the Gender and Age variables reported by the CPSCC Data, there were 186 Males and 67 females who died from an inhalant from 2007 – 2022.  Of these two groups, 176 males and 65 females died from a Difluoroethane Duster overdose.  A large majority of both the men (78) and the women (30) were 30 to 39 years old.

It is overwhelmingly obvious that Florida has a serious inhalant abuse problem and that inhalants are being used by both men and women of all ages in the state.  For any State to ignore the fact that they have an inhalant problem within their citizenry is negligent at best.

Georgia is another state that FUAIA has decided to add to the inhalant death section of the website due to the large number of these deaths being identified.  The current inhalant death information provided by the Georgia Medical Examiner’s Office includes data from 2007 – 2021 and the variables Year of Death, Chemical/Product, Gender, and Age.  The Ethnicity of the deceased individuals was not provided for examination.

The total number of inhalant deaths for the state of Georgia from 2007 – 2021 was 103.  The largest number of deaths (78) were due to Difluoroethane Dusters with Helium being the second most often associated inhalant with 8 deaths identified.  The years with the largest number of inhalant deaths were 2017 through 2020 with the numbers 14, 10, 8, and 13 respectively.  The previous years have deaths remaining steady anywhere from 2 to 8 annually.  It appears that the use of inhalants has increased in the later years of the 2020s and may be continuing to do so at this time (2025). 

The largest number of inhalant deaths were Males at 77 with Females providing 26 of the identified 103 inhalant deaths.  The largest number of Male deaths occurred in men 30-39 years of age (27), with  individuals 20 – 29 years of age contributing 21 deaths to the total.  Females in the 20 – 29 age group provided the largest number of deaths (10) for this gender, with the other age levels identifying less than 8 deaths each.

Missouri (St. Louis and Jackson Counties)

Another newly added state to the website inhalant death data is the state of Missouri.  The Medical Examiner inhalant death data for Missouri includes deaths from the two Counties St. Louis and Jackson only.  Because the Jackson County death data included only the Year of Death and the Chemical/Product, those deaths were only documented on the inhalant Chemical chart along with the St. Louis information.  Inhalant deaths identified by Chemical totaled 37 while the Gender/Age and Ethnicity charts list only 29.

There were 37 inhalant deaths identified by the Medical Examiners of the two listed counties with 28 of them being attributed to Difluoroethane Dusters.  There were only 4 other inhalant Chemicals listed along with an “other” column for miscellaneous products.

There were significantly more Male inhalant deaths at 24 of the 29, with only 5 Female deaths noted.  The majority of the Male deaths occurred in individuals 20 – 29 and those over 50 years of age.  The Female deaths were almost equal in all age groups over 20.  The large majority of these inhalant deaths were Caucasians (27) with 2 individuals being African American.  In comparison to the CPSCC Data, this is one state where the Medical Examiner total was below the CPSCC Data numbers.  The CPSCC Data identified 61 inhalant deaths with 53 of them being attributed to DFE, while the Missouri ME data only identified 29 deaths with only 20 of them being DFE overdoses.  The reason the Missouri Medical Examiner’s numbers are far less than the CPSCCD numbers is because the Missouri Medical Examiner data encompasses only 2 of the 115 counties, while the CPSCC Data is collected from the entire state’s contributing sources.