I got tipped off to this from rec.models.scale
Toulene is the organic solvent found in modeling glue, putty (not expoy I don't think), and lacquer paints. It's the stuff in glue that melts the plastic (and by this article your brain
)
'Huffed' Solvents Act Like Cocaine on Brain-Study
Mon Apr 15, 2:01 PM ET
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The fumes from glue, lighters and other solvents that
children and young adults inhale go straight to the same brain regions that
are stimulated by cocaine and other drugs, researchers said on Monday in a
study that shed light on the appeal of "huffing."
Brain scans show that chemicals such as toluene move very quickly to
pleasure centers -- then move out to other brain cells, causing the damage
that can make sniffers lose their memory, suffer vision problems and
eventually develop serious mental defects.
"It's the first time we've ever shown it," neuroanatomist Stephen Dewey of
Brookhaven National Laboratory (news - web sites) in New York, who helped
lead the study, said in an interview.
"We have known it from behavioral studies -- people will report euphoria and
they will report highs. But we have never known this class of chemicals,
these toluenes, go to the dopamine centers of the brain, much like cocaine."
Sniffing or huffing is of special concern because children like to do it.
Unlike illegal drugs such as cocaine, solvents are everywhere and easily
accessed by youngsters who quickly learn they can give a cheap high.
"Like rubber cement -- you could roll it on your desk into a ball and then
sniff it," said Dewey, who works in his local schools to discourage children
from using drugs.
"I get questions from fourth, fifth, sixth graders. They huff butane
lighters," he said. "The most striking latest statistics suggest that one in
five eighth graders have done it."
Writing in the journal Life Sciences, Dewey and colleagues said they
injected toluene -- the chemical that causes the "high" from sniffing --
into baboons and then did PET scans of their brains and bodies.
"The images were really striking. None of us expected to see what we saw,"
Dewey said.
The chemical went straight to clusters of brain cells that produce
dopamine -- a neurotransmitter or message-carrying chemical associated with
pleasure.
"Then we watched it redistribute to the white matter in the brain. And it
goes to the kidneys just as quickly," he said.
This could explain the toxic side-effects of huffing or sniffing. "What you
see is over time is you get cortical atrophy, characterized by changes in
cognition, disorientation," Dewey said. Vision becomes blurred and victims
can become uncoordinated.
The team next plans to recruit adults who admit they sniff or huff inhalants
and do PET scans of their brains as they do.
"There is never a shortage of volunteers," said Dewey.
He expects the chemicals, when inhaled, will work even more quickly than
when injected.
The team chose toluene because it is one of the most common industrial
solvents, found in paints, glues, and other products favored by huffers.