Inhalants: A Short History
Ancient cultures in Egypt, Babylonia (present-day Iraq), India and China used vapors to alter consciousness or as part of religious ceremonies.
According to some researchers, priestesses at the Temple of Apollo* in Delphi (a city in ancient Greece) are believed to have inhaled gas vapors to alter their state of consciousness during their rituals.
In the early 1800s, commonly used anesthetics like nitrous oxide, ether and chloroform were used as intoxicants.
Nitrous oxide was regarded as a cheap substitute for alcohol and was popularized by the British scientist Sir Humphry Davy. He held nitrous oxide parties and coined the term laughing gas in 1799. Noting the anesthetic effects, Davy proposed that the gas could be used for operations, although this was not tried for another half-century.
The use of anesthetics for recreational purposes continued throughout the 19th century in Europe and the US.
* The Greeks believed that the god Apollo gave prophesies through priestesses at the Temple of Apollo, an ancient shrine.
In the 1920s, ether became a substitute for alcohol and was a recreational drug during the Prohibition Era in the US.
In the 1940s, solvent abuse, mainly gasoline sniffing, gained popularity.
Abuse of inhalants in the United States increased in the 1950s and is now widespread among adolescents.
By the 1960s, widespread solvent sniffing included products like paint and lacquer thinners, nail polish remover, shoe polish, lighter fluid, spray paint and glue.
In recent decades, inhalant abuse has become a major issue among homeless children worldwide, including in South Asia, Mexico, Eastern Europe and Kenya. Street kids use these inhalants to numb the pain of hunger, cold and desperation.
Gas and spray paint sniffing is also common in remote regions in Canada, America, Australia, New Zealand and some Pacific islands.
How much do you really know about inhalants?
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