This is my belated response to this thread about canned air/computer duster.
I am sure many of you are familiar with what duster is, some of you may have even used it either to clean your keyboard or maybe even to get high.
As always the getting high part is the one I am interested in, and initially I did not know much about 'duster' other then a can I had contained a volatile chemical called tetrafluoroethane. The gas is manufactured by reacting hydrogen fluoride with trichloroethylene. Other brands of computer duster may contain difluoroethane or some other propellent, but these two seem to be the most common.
When these substances are used to induce altered consciousness they are known as inhalants. Other inhalants include amyl nitrates, freon, gasoline and ethylene among others. Inhalants are in the eyes of many people including mine about the lowest you can go to get high. They are generally regarded as extremely dangerous and damaging to the brain and organs.
Beeblebrox claims that:
No doubt inhalants in general are dangerous, but I strived to uncover the more specific dangers and psychoactivity of computer duster, as did Nikateen.Quote:
The "high" is caused by a sudden, acute anoxia due to oxygen displacement. Essentially, what you are experiencing is your brain beginning to die. It's not a drug, it's a suicide waiting to happen, and so we will not discuss it here.
I first went to Erowid and found several experience reports on computer duster specifically both neutral and negative. (Im not going to say positive because we're talking about inhaling computer duster.) After having read all of the reports I concluded that the experiences could not be dismissed as "your brain beginning to die". Many of these experiences were complete with full-blown hallucinations and altered consciousness leading to what some might call insight. Realistically however brain cells die all the time even in people who don't inhale computer duster, and brain cell death alone as far as I know (and I do seem to know a lot) does not trigger such extreme hallucinations...so it must have more to do with some other, perhaps psychoactive aspect of the gas. I myself was surprised at how deep some of the expriences were and also noticed that most of the reports were very well writin by individuals who seemed to be, dare I say, intelligent.
You can take a look at these reports for yourself here.
Many of these experience reports failed to specify exactly what gas the computer duster contained but searching the internet the two most common gases seemed to be tetrafluoroethane and difluoroethane.
After looking over some chemical data sheets I found that data on human exposure and toxicity to 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane is limited, but on laboratory animals it has been shown to have a low toxicity. In lab animals CNS depression and anaesthetic effects have been noted.
There was also a study involving humans in which "volunteers received up to 16 breath inhalations of 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane within about 10 min. Investigations included blood pressure and heart rhythm, limited blood biochemistry, and pulmonary function tests; no abnormalities were observed, and there were no clinical signs of toxicity."
Finally the International Chemical Safety Card indicates that inhalation of tetrafluoroethane may cause dizziness, drowsiness and dullness. It may also have some effect on the cardiovascular system and physicians are warned that sympathomimetic drugs (adrenaline or drugs that stimulate the central nervous system) should be avoided following exposure to prevent cardiac arrest.
All of this information can be verified here.
A government toxicology report of difluoroethane revealed that inhalation can cause confusion, irritation of the lungs, tremors and in the extreme case coma. Also that "lightheadedness and altered consciousness may occur at levels above 5% to 15%" and that a study of refrigerator repairmen exposed to fluorocarbons showed "no detectable neurologic impairment or electroneurophysiological abnormality observed."
These inhalants certainly are not safe, users who are not careful risk freezing their lungs as the liquid in the can becomes a gas. There also seems to be a risk of passing out, vomiting, and a slight chance of going into a coma. To say the experience is from your brain beginning to die is a bit far from the truth in my book though.
