Opal fuel myths dismissed

REPORTS that Opal - the unsniffable petrol - can be sniffed is polystyrene is put in it have been dismissed as a potentially-deadly "bush myth".

Opal is being rolled out in "Aboriginal communities across the NT, South Australia and Western Australia in a bid to curb the scourge of petrol sniffing, which plaues up to 700 peope.

But rumours have been circulatng around remote desert townships that Opla can be sniffed if you mix it with some household substances - including beaabag beans and toothpaste.

The methods are known to have been tried in some indigenous communities.

Blair McFarland, the co-ordinator of Alice Springs-based Central Australans Youth Link Up Service petrol sniffing control program, said it was "absolute rubbish".

He said the gases produced when polystyrene was placed in Opal were toxic.

"It is not sniffable," he said. "And it is so toxic it just burns your nose - it hurts like mad."

When burned - or placed in a solvent such as petrol - polystyrene can give off carbon monoxide gas.

Other gases, such as oxides of nitrogen, hydrogen chloride and hydrogen cyanide, also reported ot be emitted, depending on the make-up of the product.

Mr McFarland said he was concerned sniffers would heed the rumours and try adding polystyrene to Opal fuel.

He was also worried such stories would discourage communities hit by sniffing from rolling out Opal.

Peter Metcalfe, spokesman for the Opal producers BP, said he had also heard also heard the rumours.

He said putting products such as polystyrene in Opal could result in a "felt pen smell."

"You can put things in Opal - but it is the things you are putting in them that you are sniffing, not the Opal," he said. You could put that into any solvent and you would get that smell."

There are also rumours suggesting heating Opal fuel - a dangerous practice in itself - can also make it sniffable.

Mr Metcalfe said: "The actual chemicals which people sniff are not there in Opal.

"There are a variety of things people say they add - some of it is just laughable."

It is estimated there are up to 700 sniffers in Central Australia - and up to 10 per cent of the population are addicts in some communities.

Sniffing has claimed about 100 lives in the past 20 years - and left hundreds of others with permanent brain damage.

Similar rumours arose in the 1980s when Avgas - aviation fuel - was rolled out in Central Australian Aboriginal communities in a bid to halt the scourge of petrol sniffing.


Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate:Sun, 20 November 2005
Source: Sunday Territorian (Australia)
Author: Paul Dyer
Copyright: 2005 Northern Territory News
Contact: ntnmail@ntn.newsltd.com.au
Website: http://ntnews.news.com.au/