Teen Dies From Using Too Much Deodorant
A teenager who used cans of deodorant rather than showering died from inhaling fumes from the aerosol cans.
Thomas Townsend, 16, had been in foster care for five years before moving to a children’s home in Kent, England, in February. Although he was not living with his mother, Sally, she was aware of Thomas’s aversion to bathing, and knew that he would spray deodorant on himself, and followed it with aftershave to cover up body odor.
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“He would go through a can a week,” she told investigators, according to the Sun. “I didn’t know he had so many cans in his room, but he was a big hoarder.” The local police in Kent found 42 aerosol cans in the troubled teen’s room.
Thomas was found collapsed against his bed, and paramedics weren’t able to revive him. The incident occurred last August, but the inquest into his cause of death concluded on Jan. 7, according to the Sun, and it was ruled an accident.
The investigating pathologists, who found no drugs or alcohol in Thomas’s system, ruled the cause of death “circulation collapse caused by butane gas inhalation,” according to Fox32 News. Butane gas is used as a propellant in aerosol sprays.
So how dangerous are aerosol deodorants? According to the National Institutes of Health, low levels of butane gas exposure from aerosol cans aren’t linked with health problems, but there are serious risks associated with inhaling aerosols when they are used excessively, as Thomas did, and in an environment that is not well entilated. Inhaling an excess of butane gas can lead to suffocation and cardiac arrest.
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“The labels on deodorant aerosols instruct you not to use them in a confined space, but I think it’s safe to say most people in the U.K. aren’t going to go outside to spray on their deodorants,” Peter Dingle, an environmental scientist and consultant toxicologist in Perth, Australia, told the Daily Mail. “They would do it in the bathroom, most likely with the door closed — and that’s a confined space.”
Dingle added: “If you watch a deodorant advert, the young man usually sprays himself all over his body, which is exactly what the can tells you you’re not supposed to do.”
(Photo: Getty Images)
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