KARACHI, Feb 13: An increasing number of people, particularly children, in the city are becoming addicted to glue sniffing, a form of substance abuse believed to have been introduced by Bengali and Afghan immigrants.

Sniffing glue has become especially common among homeless kids or those of low-income families. A survey conducted by this correspondent in District South found Lyari Town, Korangi bus stop, Khadda Market, Artillery Maidan area, Empress Market, Jehangir Park, Cantt Railway Station, Arambagh and Korangi bus stop abounding with these addicts, most of them teenagers. “I sniff glue to fight off hunger, and memories of my family. Besides, glue is easily available and nobody can question its use on purchase,” said a thirteen-year-old runaway.

These children are frequently seen in and around shrines and crowded market places, begging, washing cars for a pittance, or working as tea-boys.

They either pour the glue onto a piece of cloth which they roll up and sniff, or pour the sticky substance into a shopping bag and hold it near their face. Some choose to enhance the pleasure by putting it in their mouths.

“After sniffing glue I start feeling dizzy, light-headed and drowsy,” said a 12-year-old boy near Saddar Nehari House, who came to Karachi three years ago from Peshawar.

“The smell of glue gives you a feeling of pleasure. It distorts the senses and increases sexual cravings. Perceptions also change leading to hallucinations,” said and expert.

“Inhaling glue by covering the face causes the displacement of oxygen in the lungs and subsequently the central nervous system, causing breathing to cease. The constant use of glue has been associated with a number of serious, long-term, and often irreversible health problems including loss of hearing, damage to the brain and bone marrow and deficiency of oxygen in the blood,” said a senior doctor of the JPMC.

“Some of the long-term affects are burned nose membranes, perforation of the gallbladder, bone marrow destruction, blindness, and possibly death,” he added.

A 14-year-old glue sniffer, who arrived in Karachi some five months back from a village, agrees with the doctors.

“When I did it for the first time my vision was blurred and everything seemed to be covered in a fog. Later, I felt I was floating in the air,” he said. He now appears hooked to the lethal substance for life.

A 10-year-old, working at Saddar Nehari Hotel, said he started sniffing glue while at work in a factory manufacturing boxes for cosmetics.

“Large quantities of glue are used in making these boxes. I worked in that factory for a year. When I left the place I realized I was craving for the smell of glue. That was when I bought some and started sniffing it,” he said.

The administration has turned a deaf ear to all pleas for help, and no measures have been taken so far to cope with this problem. Observers say that there is an urgent need to check the dangerous trend with the requisite medical treatment, education and preventive measures.—PPI