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By: Valerie Boey - WTSP/Tampa Bay's 10 News, 11/2/2006

Tampa, Florida - Air Conditioning business owner Dan Rivera keeps containers of freon in a safe place. It's a gas usually used to absorb heat in a house, “This stuff is dangerous.” He says it's especially risky because teenagers are inhaling the gas for a quick high, “These chemicals are not designed to be huffed. I mean it gives kids a high and of course they're not paying for it, it's at the expense of someone else.”

Ginger Senko of Totaline says, parents can buy locking caps for around $30-dollars, to prevent access to freon in an air conditioner, “You turn the key till it locks, take it off and it won't screw off.”

Dr. Cynthia Lewis-Younger of the Florida Poison Information Center says inhaling freon could cause brain damage or even worse, “If the level of inhalant is high enough it can cause hypoxia or too little oxygen getting to the brain and that can even result in death.”

As a father, Dan says it's scary knowing kids are putting their lives at risk, “I just go home and remind my kids this is something these kids might ask you to do, don't do it.”

It's also an expensive habit. A service call to refill freon costs between $275 to $300-dollars and it's the homeowner who gets stuck with the bill, “To find out that there was no problem with the system is very frustrating.”

But people who get high from freon are the ones that could pay the ultimate price.

Signs of huffing include frostbite or whiteness around the nose. There could also be changes in behavior such as lying, running away or stealing. Taking freon from another person's air conditioning unit is considered theft.