Epidemiology of Inhalant Abuse - Archives - National Institute on ...

eformulation <strong>of</strong> products <strong>of</strong>ten is difficult to justify since a single
manufacturer that reformulated its product would be at a major financial
disadvantage, both from bearing the cost <strong>of</strong> reformulation and from
consumer resistance to a product that performed poorly compared to
those <strong>of</strong> competitors.
Businesses—through their own efforts and associations such as SAFE
and CSMA—sponsor both inhalant abuse-targeted and general substance
abuse prevention and education initiatives. CSMA has developed a
videotape and print material about the dangers <strong>of</strong> inhalant abuse, and it
has provided a copy <strong>of</strong> these to the 15,000 school districts across the
Nation. These are good faith efforts by private business to assist in the
effort against inhalant abuse. Still, the cumulative efforts <strong>of</strong> these two
associations are no more than a few million dollars per year. These
efforts are quite small in contrast to the Federal Government’s investment
<strong>of</strong> over $1.5 billion in drug prevention and education services per year
and an additional $150 million per year in related research (Office <strong>of</strong>
<strong>National</strong> Drug Control Policy 1992).
The Federal Government
The Federal Government has undertaken several specific actions that
have limited the availability <strong>of</strong> particular abusable products over the past
25 years. These actions include:
1. A regulatory decision by the FDA in 1968 to return amyl nitrite to
prescription status from over-the-counter status because it was being
abused;
2. A decision by the Federal Trade Commission in 1969 to ban devices
using CFCs to chill beverage glasses;
3. A decision by the FDA in 1974 to require that a warning label be
affixed to pressurized cans <strong>of</strong> edible cooking oils and personal care
products;
4. FDA establishment <strong>of</strong> standards for food products for purity and
concentration <strong>of</strong> nitrous oxide;
5. Passage <strong>of</strong> an act <strong>of</strong> Congress in 1988 that banned use <strong>of</strong> butyl
nitrites in room odorizers because they were <strong>of</strong>ten purchased for
inhalation: and
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