10-year-olds among the 100 Queenslanders a year hospitalised for chroming

Manufacturers and retailers of deodorant and paint are being asked to take drastic action top stop chroming as new data revealed 100 Queenslanders a year – some as young as 10 – are being admitted to hospital.

CHILDREN as young as 10 are among the 100 Queenslanders being admitted to hospital every year for chroming, Health Minister Steven Miles revealed as he announced a roundtable to address the alarming rates.

Mr Miles has called on manufacturers to change their formulas as he extended an invitation to companies, retailers and service providers to meet to come up with new solutions.

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During 2018-19, 98 people were admitted 141 times to Queensland hospitals because of chroming — the practice of inhaling intoxicating fumes from products like deodorant and paint.

Numbers of deaths were not released yesterday.

“Chroming is a serious issue affecting some of the most vulnerable people in our community and, heartbreakingly, it disproportionately affects young people,” Mr Miles said.

“Sadly, of those 98 patients, 45 were aged 10-19 and a further 27 were aged under 29.

“I am calling on manufacturers who know their products have a high risk of being misused to change their formulas where they can.”

Children chroming in a park in Cairns.

Mr Miles said Unilever had already contacted him acknowledging one of its aerosol deodorant products was being misused by young people and advising it was investigating the issue.

A statement from Unilever said the “enormously complex issue” affected the entire aerosol industry with no simple solution.

“Among other measures, Unilever has been in contact with major retailers to ask that our aerosol deodorant products be contained in theft-reduction shelving in the most affected communities,” it said.

Chroming is becoming a real problem across north Queensland, police say.

Mr Miles said manufacturers changing their ingredients to make their products less attractive to young people who want to inhale was a key way forward.

He suggested manufacturers could seek subsidies from the Commonwealth to help with the costs of changing their formulas, as had been done to make petrol “less sniffable” as he called for a national conversation on chroming.

“There’s a range of options to be considered including product reformulation, retailing and product placement, warning labelling and packaging so there’s a wide range of things that can be done,” he said.

“If we don’t intervene, well then they end up in our emergency departments.”

Mental Health Commissioner Ivan Frkovic said it was important to also understand why vulnerable children were using in the first place.