Hi there, I'm Mrs. Kim and welcome to today's lesson, all about solvents.

This fits into the Disease and Drugs unit, but you may recognise some of the information from back in primary school when you looked at healthy lifestyles and also from the respiration and breathing topic and from health and disease as well.

Okay, so let's get started then.

So today's lesson, our main outcome is, "I can explain what solvents are and the effects that inhaling them have on the body." These are some of the key terms that we're going to be using today and if you'd like to stop and read them in more detail, please do pause the video but do rest assured that I will go over each one of these as we move through the slide deck.

We only have two learning cycles for today.

We've got solvents and we've got long-term effects of solvent abuse and of course, we will be starting with solvents.

So how many of these words have you heard of before? They do sound quite similar.

Solution, solvent, soluble, insoluble, and solute.

You should have actually heard of all of them before in some of the chemistry topics.

However, the one that's really important for us today is this idea of a solvent.

A solvent is able to dissolve a solute.

We can see in the image there that actually we've got our solute and an example of that would be sugar.

Our solution is when we have added water to that sugar, water being the solvent as it is able to dissolve the sugar to become a solution.

So can you identify the solvent and solute which make a salt solution? Is it, a.

salt is the solute and water is the solvent or b.

salt is the solvent and water is the solute.

I'll give you a moment to think about it but if you need more time, please pause the video.

Brilliant.

Did you think it was, a.

Salt is the solute and then water is the solvent? So when you mix those together, the salt dissolves and it becomes a solution.

Excellent, well done.

Okay, so why are we interested in solvents then? Well, solvents are actually found in lots of different household products and actually some people have abused these solvents in order to get a similar effect to what people find with alcohol.

Okay, so it has that kind of depressant effects when inhaled, that means that we breathe it in.

By depressant effects, then we mean things that sort of slow us down.

People might get slurred speech and things.

And it also slows down those signals to the brain.

They're usually very, very cheap and therefore readily available and therefore, unfortunately lots of times, young people will use solvents because they're so readily available.

Where we find them then? Things like aerosols, paint, glue and lighter fluid.

All of these contain solvents and can be used as a drug.

Solvents then are what we know as volatile and volatile means that they will evaporate really easily at room temperature, so you don't need to heat them up or anything.

They will actually just evaporate in the air.

Once they've evaporated, then the person will try to inhale that as quickly as possible and that air and gas will go down into their lungs and pass across the alveoli, as oxygen does normally, as part of your normal gas exchange system.

Now because that gets really, really quickly into a person's bloodstream, then that means that they will become intoxicated.

That means that they are under the influence of a drug and with solvents, it does happen super fast.

Okay, onto another check then.

Which word describes when a person is under the influence of a drug? Is it, a.

addiction, b.

evaporate, or c.

intoxicated? I'll give you a moment to think about it, but if you need more time, please pause the video.

Okay.

Did you think c.

Intoxicated? Excellent, really well done.

So an example of a solvent that has become much more popular in the last, sort of, 10 years or so and people are finding that many more people are using this drug, is known as nitrous oxide.

It's actually a colourless gas and it's used for medicine and dentistry because actually it sort of numbs pain and so it can be used, you know, especially if you're having like a filling put in or something like that.

When it is prescribed by medical professionals and when it's used by dentists and doctors, actually it's completely legal to use.

However, if that nitrous oxide gets out into the wider population and people are using it for a recreational reason, so for fun and not for medical reasons, it then becomes illegal and it falls into the class C for drugs, okay? And it's often has a term called laughing gas because this is the kind of response that people get from using it, okay? They might get a sort of uncontrollable fit of laughter happening.

It is very serious and because of the way that people inhale nitrous oxide as well as other solvents, actually quite a few people have suffocated and died as a result of inhaling nitrous oxide.

So it is very, very dangerous, especially in the way that people take it.

Alright then, true or false, nitrous oxide is often used as a painkiller.

I'll give you a moment to think about it, but if you need more time, do pause the video.

I would also like you to justify your answer.

a.

paramedics use nitrous oxide as a painkiller or b.

nitrous oxide is an illegal class C drug.

Okay, so did you realise that that was true? Yes, it is and of course that's because paramedics, so people that work for the medical profession, use nitrous oxide as a painkiller.

Excellent, well done.

Okay, then onto our first task of the day.

I would like you to draw and label some items that contain solvents.

I'll give you a moment to think about it, but if you need more time, please pause the video.

Okay, let's have a little look at this drawing then.

So we've got aerosols there, we've got some nitrous oxide, we've got paint, lighter fluid and glue.

This isn't a full list, so actually you might have some other examples and you could check those with your teacher.

Okay, Right.

Let's move on then.

So onto our second learning cycle of today.

This is the long-term effects of solvent abuse.

So why do you think some people may abuse solvents? And this really does kind of include lots of other reasons why people take drugs in the first place, not just solvents.

And it might be a sort of response to other things that are happening in their lives.

Things that are not going particularly well.

One reason could be that they are feeling depressed, okay? So they're feeling very sad and need to, sort of escape that feeling.

They might be quite an anxious person and they might be worrying about a lot of different things.

They might feel quite lonely and sort of isolated from their peers and other people around them.

It might also be down to something called peer pressure.

Now peer pressure is where people that you hang about with or are friends with are in your sort of, same age category.

Actually they're doing it and they're also encouraging other people to do it at the same time.

Now actually, people might think that solvents are not harmful, whereas actually, they can be very harmful.

We've already mentioned, haven't we, that actually in the actual process of inhaling them, can lead to suffocation? But also it might be that people are using those for a longer period of time and it might be that they gain something called a tolerance.

Now a tolerance is where your body gets used to that drug and so therefore, in order to get the same effects, you need to use a lot more in each time you take it.

This can lead to psychological addiction.

Now this is different from where you have an actual physical addiction and your body sort of, tries to manage that.

Actually psychological addiction is in your mind and it's that feeling and need to keep taking the drug all of the time.

It is also known as a "gateway" drug.

A gateway drug is a drug that people tend to take first because they think it's not as harmful and actually then that leads them onto being within circles of people where they may be offered other drugs, drugs that are maybe class B and class A that the government perceive as being more dangerous.

And so actually it's a gateway, it's a step to other drugs.

Okay, which of the following are reasons why a person might use solvents? a.

anxiety, b.

improve their fitness, c.

depression or d.

feeling happy? I'll give you a moment to think about it, but if you need more time, please pause the video.

Okay, we've got a for anxiety, okay? So people might be feeling quite worried about things and it sort of, takes 'em away from that and also depression, where people may be feeling very sad and not able to sort of, interact with the other people around them very well.

Excellent, well done.

Okay, now as I said, solvents actually have those immediate short term effects, okay? So it might be that it, they bring about something called a blackout, okay? Where somebody is not able to remember a period of time where they were taking that drug.

They might become very aggressive, okay? So they might completely have a different personality change due to taking solvents and where they might normally feel quite relaxed actually they get very angry, very quickly at different situations.

They might also experience breathing difficulties.

Obviously you are inhaling that solvent into your lungs and it will affect that lining all the way through your gas exchange system and make it much more difficult to breathe.

People might feel nauseous, so they feel sick and it could lead to them vomiting and actually being sick.

It can also lead to the heart going out of rhythm.

Now normally your heart will keep a really nice rhythm all the time to make sure that you are pumping enough blood around your body.

Remember all of your cells require fuel, they require that oxygen and glucose to provide energy for your cells in cellular respiration.

That oxygen and glucose makes it to all of your different cells around your body because it's being pumped there by your heart.

It might lead to hallucinations.

Hallucinations are where somebody might see or hear something that isn't actually happening.

It can sort of affect all of a person's senses during hallucinations.

There are also some of the long-term health risks of actually using solvents.

One of those is muscle damage and I mentioned a moment ago about actually the heart not necessarily being able to pump particularly well and the rhythm of the heart changing.

Well actually that can also affect the blood flow around the body and so those muscles that really, really need that fuel for cellular respiration, actually don't get enough and it can lead to those muscle cells becoming damaged.

Similarly then we also see the same effects in both the liver and the kidney and they can also become damaged.

Some people may actually use solvents for a lot longer, then.

And if we are taking solvents for kind of, 10 years or more, actually it can lead to a lasting impairment.

So where the brain is not working correctly and actually affects your brain function.

We especially notice this in the part of the brain that controls movement.

And so people may find that they're not able to sort of, control their movements in the way that they have done before.

Unfortunately, we don't only see this in people that are abusing it sort of, for recreational use.

Actually people work in the factories that make these everyday products, such as paints and aerosols and things like that, and actually we can see the same type of damage happening in those people that work in places that make solvents.

In the UK especially, the employer should have put measures in to prevent employees from being exposed to the solvents.

So there should be a definite safety advice around working in those areas.

It might be that they wear a mask in order to make sure that they are not inhaling these solvents on a daily basis and there will be lots and lots of restrictions that should have been put in place.

Okay then so, true or false? "Solvent abuse can lead to death." Is that true or is that false? Can you justify your answer? "It will only cause brain damage." b.

Solvents can change the rhythm of the heart and lead to sudden death.

I'll give you a moment to think about it, but if you need more time, please pause the video.

Okay, did you say that that was true? Okay and that is because solvents can change the rhythm of the heart and lead to sudden death, okay? Remember that brain damage will happen and that tends to be in people that have been abusing solvents for a lot longer time, about 10 years.

Okay, another check.

"Which of the following effects of solvent abuse are long-term health risks?" a.

Hallucinations, b.

Liver and Kidney damage, c.

Blackouts or d.

Brain damage? Again I'll give you a moment to think about it, but if you need more time, please pause the video.

Okay, did you think of liver and kidney damage and also brain damage? Excellent, well done.

Onto our final task of the day then.

"You have been asked to give a presentation to your class on the dangers of solvents.

You are working in a group with Jacob and Sam.

What else would you include in the presentation?" Let's hear from Jacob then and see what he's put in.

"Often people that are depressed or lonely take solvents to escape.

Solvent abuse can often be a gateway to other drugs." Sam says," Solvents are found in everyday products we have in our homes." Okay, so I'll give you a moment to about what else you would put in there, but if you need more time, please pause the video.

Okay, let's have a little look at some of the other reasons then.

So, what we would've maybe included is that as well as depression and loneliness, people can also start to abuse solvents because of peer pressure and also loneliness.

Short-term effects are things like blackouts, breathing difficulties, heart problems, aggressive behaviour, feeling nauseous or vomiting, hallucination, so maybe feeling or seeing or hearing things that are not really there and death by suffocation and that's in the sort of, technique of how people take solvents.

Some long-term effects, then.

Muscle damage, kidney damage, and liver damage.

You might also find that people get brain damage and that can lead to a lack of control over their movements.

People can experience the same health risks then when they're working with solvents and they need to be protected by their employer.

That's really important.

Okay, so we have come to the end of this lesson today and we are just going to go through some of those really key learning points that we have discovered over this slide deck.

So, solvents are found in everyday items such as aerosols, paint, and glue.

They can be inhaled, which causes intoxication.

They have a similar effect on the body as alcohol.

Short term adverse effects of solvent abuse include breathing difficulties, changes in behaviour, hallucinations and vomiting.

Long-term abuse can lead to muscle, kidney, liver and brain damage and even death.

Okay, I've really, really enjoyed learning with you and I want to thank you for staying with me and finishing off this lesson.

Thank you so much, hope to see you again soon.

Bye!.