Call for bigger fly spray warnings after death

Hamilton coroner Gordon Matenga is calling for bigger warnings on fly spray cans after the death of a second Hamilton teenager.

The girl's name has been suppressed at the request of her family.

It is the second Waikato death to be caused by inhaling fly spray in less than a year.

Last June, Gerard Anthony Versteeg, aged 13, died after inhaling fly spray at a party in Tamahere.

The second teenager died in February after she was found collapsed in the hallway of her Hamilton home.

Efforts to resuscitate her failed.

The autopsy showed butane - the propellant used in fly spray - in the teenager's blood, and empty cans of fly spray were found under her bed.

She died from acute heart failure.

A friend said the dead girl had told her she was sniffing fly spray because it gave her a "short buzz."

Mr Matenga said warnings on cans of fly spray needed to be made more prominent and in larger writing.

"It is, after all, a warning to people that their life could be in danger if the product is abused," he said in his report.

"It has unfortunately become fairly prevalent within New Zealand for our young people to sniff fly spray to get a quick buzz."

Mr Matenga said there had been a number of cases in Hamilton and he was sure there were others around the country.

He wants the Consumer Affairs Ministry to put warnings on all butane-propelled products.

Mr Matenga said it was the butane which gave the "buzz," rather than the fly spray.

- NZPA