The deadly risks of young people huffing butane will be featured in two hard-hitting reports expected to be released this month.
Those reports from the child and youth mortality review committee and Chief Coroner Judge Neil MacLean are expected to deal with the risk associated with inhaling butane, also known as "huffing". Coroners dealt with 28 butane-related deaths from 2007-11.
Darius Claxton (12) died after huffing butane with friends in a Christchurch car park on May 12. Inquiries confirm he bought the product from a nearby convenience store.
There are no restrictions on the sale of butane to minors.
Last month, Judge MacLean called for families to talk to their children about the dangers of inhalants, while he undertook an urgent review of huffing.
That call was prompted by an incident which left two Mosgiel teenagers with horrific burns, following an explosion of a 9kg lpg bottle from which they were huffing.
Judge MacLean's report, which would review coroner findings relating to butane deaths, will be released this month.
Coinciding with that release, the Child and Youth Mortality Review Committee was expected to release to stakeholders its report on unintentional poisoning deaths, such as butane-related deaths.
That report examines all unintentional poisoning deaths from January 1, 2002, to December 31, 2008. All but one of the 103 people who died were between 13 and 24 years of age.
Chairman Dr Nick Baker told the Otago Daily Times there was a lot of community interest and distress about this.
"It seems unusual, as a society, we have corner shops, dairies and hardware stores that sell things like butane to 12-year-olds."
The long-term solution was to copy Western Australia and the United Kingdom, which had introduced legislation to prevent the sale of such substances to young people.
While restrictions were in place for the sale of spray cans, "and 'We have done that to reduce graffiti, but what have we done to reduce the deaths?"
'"Butane causes a fair few deaths and what logical reason would a 12-year-old have to use butane? They could be ... inhaling it, they could be doing nasty tricks with cigarette lighters ... I can't see any benefit with selling it to 12-year-olds."
However, rather than waiting on changes implemented by the Government, communities "could have the power to bring and find the solution, but if there was one easy solution we would have done it long ago".
Dr Baker said one solution for communities was for retailers to adopt a common-sense approach when selling butane, "and choosing not to sell to those possibly at risk of trying substance abuse".
Generally, telling young people what to do was not a way to change their behaviours, and the challenge was far bigger than the health system, he said.
Dr Leo Schep, a toxicologist at the National Poisons Centre, said butane was often used as a propellant, in such things common products as fly spray and hair spray, and "people inhale that butane to get a narcotic high".
Since 2003, the Dunedin-based centre had dealt with a steady number of calls, "but thankfully, in the last couple of years, they have dropped off a little bit".
