The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7383 p32
14 January 2006

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DoH warns about volatile substance abuse

Concerns about the abuse of volatile substances by health workers have been raised by Sir Liam Donaldson, chief medical officer for England, in a letter to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's President, Hemant Patel.

Sir Liam wrote to Mr Patel last month to ask for the Society’s help in alerting members of the Society to the potential abuse of anaesthetic agents and to review current, local procedures to minimise the potential for abuse. The letter follows the revelation that isoflurane and sevoflurane were associated with the deaths of four NHS members of staff in 2003. The DoH is concerned that the actual number of health service workers abusing volatile substances, and in particular anaesthetic agents, may be greater than the number of reported deaths.

Annual data on deaths associated with the deliberate inhalation of volatile substances were published last month and include information from 2003. A summary is available online