Industry Tackling VSA
the aerosol industry’s experience
Scottish Drugs Forum
6 October 2004
Sue Rogers, Director
British Aerosol Manufacturers’
Association
British Aerosol
Manufacturers’ Association
Raw
material
suppliers
Machinery
suppliers
Can
makers
Valve
makers
Fillers
Marketers
Member of European Aerosol Federation (FEA)
What does BAMA do?
•
BAMA unites the industry
•
Lobbies opinion formers in the UK and
Europe
•
Provides a forum for development of
technical/environmental best practice
•
Promotes the industry and its products
•
Provides information on all aspects of the
industry
Aerosol Products
• There are an estimated 200 different types of aerosol
on the market, around 2,000 different brands.
• They dispense wet sprays, dry sprays, creams, gels
and foams.
• In the UK, around 600 million aerosols are used each
year.
• The UK produces 30% of all the aerosols in Europe.
• Aerosols are among the everyday products which can
be abused
VSA Prevalence
• Many youngsters try solvent abuse usually
unaware that it is a “loaded gun” and many
deaths occur first try
• VSA is widespread with an estimated
25,000+ youngsters trying it each year in UK
• survey of secondary schoolchildren
published by DoH found 7% of boys and 8%
of girls tried solvents in 2001
VSA Fatalities
• St George’s Hospital Medical School 2004
report shows 63 deaths in 2002, level with
2001
• Butane lighter refills still account for c.60% of
deaths -fall in deaths in 2000 not sustained?
• aerosols account for 10 deaths (16%)
• over 18s now account for more deaths than
under 18s
VSA Deaths by Year
All ages: 1971 to 2002 (n =2050)
152
160
Number of deaths
140
120
100
85
80
63
60
40
20
0
71
74
77
80
83
86
Year
89
92
95
98 2001
VSA deathsunanswered questions
• Why do more boys die from VSA than girls?
• Is there a ‘safer’ way to abuse than others?
• Why is the age of death rising?
• Why are there so many regional variations in
the number of deaths?
• What can we do to deter determined abusers?
• What messages are we giving? Are they right?
Aerosol Industry Activity
• BAMA has worked closely with VSA
professionals and charities for nearly 30 years
• How do we get involved?
• Sponsoring education activities
• SACKI warning
• provide focal point for VSA experts/Government
• Research
Aerosol Industry Activity
•
Raising awareness - examples:
• Leaflet in every pay packet to raise
awareness among work force
• VSA Industry Forum
• Presentations to industry in UK and Europe
• free leaflets in Urdu, Gujurati, and English for
retailers
Aerosol Industry Activity
• Networking
• VSA Committee meets regularly with DoH,
EducaRI, Re-Solv and St George’s Hospital
Medical School
• On Advisory Group of Solvent Misuse Network
and Dissemination Project
• Participated in VSA National Seminar November
02 and ran a focus group on manufacturing
• BAMA has a trustee on Re-Solv
Aerosol Industry Activity
• Educational activities:
• TACADE schools’ packs for primary and
secondary schools
• ‘Poor Ted’ Theatre in Education for primary
schools through ONO Theatre Company
• Quick Fix Solutions -Hungerford Drugs Project
• Conferences at St George’s,NCB, Solve-it 2004
• VS Focus for Scottish Drugs Forum
Aerosol Industry Activity
• Educational activities -more examples:
• BBC 999 programme VSA special on video for
schools
• Videos for Re-Solv and Richard Ives
• Xoteric interactive CD-ROM for secondary
schools
• Articles in ‘Chemist and Druggist’, GP and police
journals
• Seminar for pharmacists
Aerosol Industry Activity
• Advisory Council on Misuse of Drugs published its
report on VSA in 1995
• BAMA led the Industry Forum which resulted from
its recommendations
• Main brief was to:
• raise awareness
• review warnings
VSA warnings
• Previous warning on aerosols was:
• ‘deliberately concentrating and inhaling the
contents of this product may be harmful or fatal’
• Other abusable products were not labelled
• VSA Industry Forum researched a wide
variety of warnings with DTI Consumer
Safety Unit
• developed the SACKI warning
SACKI Label
• Understood by all audiences including
parents and young people
• Put on most aerosols
in the UK by 2000
• Voluntary warning
SACKI Label
• Not yet accepted in Continental Europe where
VSA is not readily recognised as a problem
• So we now have UK only packs- took courage
and conviction from UK marketers
• Research shows that consumers see the label
as a responsible approach by the marketer
• Effect on VSA/understanding of risk is not
known
Aerosol Industry Activity
• Recent initiatives:
• University project to look for technical
solutions to prevent abuse of aerosols
• research with VSA field workers and chronic
abusers into how products are abused,
doses, deterrents
How does an
Aerosol Work?
Gaseous propellant
exerting pressure
Liquefied propellant
becoming gas mixed
with product
Product concentrate
and liquefied propellant
Types of aerosol propellants
• CFCs ( phased out by1989)
• HCFCs (little used- phased out by 1996)
• Liquefied gases:
• hydrocarbons -butane; propane; iso-butane
• Dimethyl Ether (DME)
• HFCs - only used in Europe for flammability
reasons-widely used in USA. (Kyoto protocol
on climate change)
Compressed Gas
propellants
• Compressed air, nitrogen, N20 or CO2
• No propellant “reservoir”
• pressure drops as pack empties
• variable spray performance
• No energy from “expanding” propellant
• rely only on mechanical break-up of spray
• coarse, wet sprays, poor sensory properties for
personal care
Compressed Gas
Aerosols
• Propellant can escape completely if
pack not upright
– cannot use all product
• Only limited acceptance in furniture
polishes, saline solutions
Search for a technical
solution to deter aerosol abuse
• There were no ‘off the shelf’ solutions available
• BAMA employed Design Research Centre,
Brunel University to manage industry brain
storming project
• 230 ideas generated and screened down to 20
which were evaluated at an industry workshop
in Feb ‘99
Search for a technical
solution to deter aerosol abuse
• No solutions but 4 potential routes for further
research:
• Inversion - a device that prevents sniffers
getting a pure stream of propellant when
the can is inverted
• Tracer - a mechanism for detecting
anyone who had been sniffing
Search for a technical
solution to deter aerosol abuse
• Timer - a mechanism which would
enable the aerosol to “cut out” if
sprayed over a certain length of time
(and reset itself later)
• Reformulation - an additive that
results in a bad taste or smell
Bitrex Project, Shell
• Bitrex is the bitterest tasting substance known
to man
• Shell have worked on the
Bitrex project for about
10 years and have shown
it to be viable solution for
lighter gas refills
Bitrex- possible deterrent
for abuse of gas lighter refills
• A gas industry-wide approach is now needed
• Following a meeting with DoH the LP Gas
Association has taken the Bitrex project on
board
• Not a solution for aerosols: Bitrex is only
expelled in the liquid phase and is not present
in gas phase
Research with VSA
Professionals and Chronic Sniffers
• BAMA commissioned groundbreaking research by
Richard Ives, which was reported in May 2001 and
sent to BAMA’s network on VSA, DoH, Health
Promotion England
• Interviews with 11 VSA professionals and 21 chronic
sniffers across the country
• Results gave useful hard information about how
aerosols are abused
Research with VSA
Professionals and Chronic Sniffers
• Showed determined/chronic sniffer would find
way round any of proposed solutions in ways
that could result in further risks e.g.
• piercing the aerosol can
• sniffing in secluded location
• Only option given possibility of success was
inclusion of additive that would make spray
taste bad
Research with VSA
Professionals and Chronic Sniffers
• Sniffers had been unaware of the risks they
were taking, although they felt that once sniffing
regularly this would not have stopped them
• One conclusion is that research is needed with
experimentalists
• what would deter them ? How best to communicate
risks to them ?
• Research with experimentalists raises ethical
issues -not for BAMA to do
Next steps
• Awaiting Secretary of State’s go ahead for
National Stakeholder Forum to work on
• common messages
• co-ordinated delivery
• exchange of expertise
• reduced duplication of effort
• identification of positive experiences overseas
Next steps
• Frustration that VSA has slipped off the Dept of
Health agenda
• BAMA wants:
• Government departments to include VSA in their
policies
• Research into most effective messages for key
audiences e.g. children, parents, professionals
Next steps
• BAMA wants:
• Strategies on VSA education which ensure
consistent key messages (probably within context of
broader initiatives on drugs)
• Further research with young people, especially
experimentalists into:
• the practice of VSA
• what would deter them
• effect of any technical solutions
Next steps
• BAMA wants:
• New retailer campaign and materials
• Regulators’ support to get “SACKI” warning accepted
across Europe
• Closer government links on VSA with other countries
worldwide
• Meeting Dept of Health in early November
BAMA contact details
• Web site:
www.bama.co.uk
• Telephone: 020 7828 5111
• Contact:
Sue Rogers, Director
• email:
suerogers@bama.co.uk