Parents of a 13-year-old girl who died after 'chroming' have said they want to raise awareness of the dangers so no other families have to go through the same heartbreak.
Melbourne girl Esra Haynes died earlier this year after suffering cardiac arrest while inhaling dangerous chemicals, 7News reports.
Her family said she spent a week-and-a-half in hospital before she died after taking part in 'chroming' at a friend's house.
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Chroming is a trend where a person inhales toxic fumes such as from an aerosol can or a tin of paint.
It has since become a trend on TikTok where videos are posted and tagged with 'WhipTok', which is a slang term for nitrous oxide.
The term first came from people sniffing chrome-based paint to get high but has since expanded to mean sniffing a wider range of toxic substances.
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Chroming is supposed to give someone a temporary high as inhaling the toxic chemicals can slow down messages between the body and brain.
However, it can also cause an irregular heart beat and chest pains, while long term abuse can lead to organ damage.
In some cases, as it was for Esra Haynes, chroming can be fatal and in the wake of her death her family wanted to highlight the dangers in the hopes of sparing other families their pain.
"We definitely have a mission to raise awareness for kids and anyone that does it,” Esra's sister Imogen said.
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"We don’t want that to happen to anyone else. We don’t want another family to go through this, it’s absolutely horrible."
Brother Seth Haynes added: "I just want to put awareness out there that it can happen very quickly, and we don’t want to lose any more amazing people."
Esra's family have said she was 'the most beautiful soul' and her death had been 'one of the hardest weeks and a half of our lives'.
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Imogen said: "[Esra] was just at her friend’s house, it was a normal night.
"She became unconscious after inhaling the aerosol can and went into cardiac arrest.
"She then spent about 1.5 weeks in hospital fighting for her life, her lungs and her heart were strong but her brain just didn’t recover. We unfortunately had to say goodbye to her."
In response to the death of 14-year-old Sarah Mescall as a possible result of chroming, TikTok said: "Content of this nature is prohibited on our platform and would be removed if found.
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"We will continue to prioritize protecting and supporting our community, working with expert partners and providing safety resources to those who need them."
Joe Harker