Non-sniffable Opal fuel can kill
The boy, the first known fatality from Opal fuel, died hours after a youth disco at the remote community of Hermannsburg, 120km west of Alice Springs, on April 13 last year.
He had gone with his cousin to a small hill where he inhaled a bottle containing Opal, drained from a broken down car, and suffocated.
Manufactured by BP and promoted as a “non-sniffable” fuel, Opal has been credited with dramatically reducing petrol sniffing in Aboriginal communities since first being introduced in 2005.
It contains lower levels than standard petrol of the aromatics which provide sniffers with a “high”.
But Northern Territory Coroner Greg Cavanagh today said it should not be marketed as a “harmless substance”.
“I consider that the promotion of Opal fuel as non-sniffable, per se, without warnings that it can still harm and indeed kill you if a person insists on sniffing it, may be misleading,” he said.
Mr Cavanagh made only one recommendation as part of his investigation, saying tags which implied Opal could not be sniffed were “clearly wrong”.
“I recommend that the Northern Territory Government, the Commonwealth Government and BP Australia ensure that any promotion in relation to Opal does not give the impression that it is a harmless substance or that it cannot cause death if ingested or sniffed,” he said.
BP spokesman Chandran Vigneswaran said a review was considering whether an increased emphasis on warnings relating to the danger of sniffing opal fuel was required.
“We need to have a look at what the coroner said and we take his findings very seriously,” he told AAP.
“But the way we communicate Opal at this time we feel pretty confident we are talking about it in a way that’s right for the communities and in a way they can relate to.”
Mr Vigneswaran said he did not think the phrase “non-sniffable” was “in any way misleading”.
“We believe there is a pretty tacit understanding in the communities that the “non-sniffable” relates to the characteristics of it not being able to create that high,” he said.
Youth worker Tristan Ray, from the Central Australian Youth Link Up Service, said there was no evidence heard before the inquiry that Opal’s promotion or marketing had contributed to the death.
“We need to take whatever caution we can to stop young people sniffing Opal, (and) “non-sniffable” is one of the simplest terms that BP could have used,” he said.
Mr Ray said the real issue was ensuring enough youth programs to stop children from engaging in substance abuse in the first place.
“We think there is a $17 million deficit in youth programs in central Australia and we have declared a national emergency into child welfare, but these services haven’t been extended to place like Hermannsburg,” he said.
Source: news.com.au
Tags: australia, fuel kills, Opal