A 15-year-old high school student died on April 11, 2021 after inhaling too much deodorant in his room in L'Isle-sur-le-Doubs (25).
A practice that is spreading among adolescents, warned the Besançon prosecutor on Tuesday at a press conference.
To discover
Her tenant owes her more than 31,000 euros, she lives in a motorhome
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This adolescent "
in full health
" and "
without history
" was discovered dead in his bed by his parents on April 11, said the public prosecutor Etienne Manteaux.
"
He was found on his stomach, under his duvet, with a spray of deodorant clinging to his hand and his cell phone
."
The autopsy carried out within the framework of an investigation opened for "
research of the causes of death
" made it possible to establish that it had died of asphyxiation following inhalation of a gas of deodorant.
"
By putting this gas in the mouth, the youngster deprived his lungs of oxygen,
" says Mr. Manteaux.
"A competition between teenagers"
"
It is a practice which seems to develop
" among adolescents who inhale deodorant "
to seek a euphoric, intoxicating effect and which may, in some, cause a hallucinogenic effect of a few tens of seconds
", he notes.
"
With the development of social networks, some film themselves breathing this gas, as for a competition between teenagers,
" said the prosecutor.
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Investigations are continuing to determine if the young man was filming himself with his phone and if his friends were aware of this practice.
Five other empty deodorant bottles were found in his room by investigators from the Doubs gendarmerie.
The Besançon prosecutor warns "
the general public and particularly adolescents about the danger that this kind of practice can represent
" and the use of deodorant as a "
low cost narcotic
".
"
Perhaps in the context of confinement there are practices, research experiences on the part of young people waiting for a social life
", estimated the colonel of the gendarmerie Frédérik Sauge-Merle.
A precedent was noted in 2014 in Nice where a young man had also died.