KEY POINTS:
DARWIN - An inquest in Alice Springs has heard how a 12-year-old boy died after sniffing a new type of fuel designed to try to stop the plague of petrol sniffing in Aboriginal communities.
The child suffocated in April this year while trying to inhale Opal fuel at Hermannsburg, 120km west of Alice Springs.
The "non-sniffable" fuel has been successfully rolled out across central Australia in a bid to wipe out petrol sniffing.
It has very low levels of the aromatics which provide sniffers with a high.
But forensic pathologist Terrence Sinton yesterday told the inquest that Opal could still be inhaled.
He said the vapour from the fuel replaced the air in the boy's lungs, which caused him to suffocate.
Speaking outside the inquest, Tristan Ray from Central Australian Youth Link-Up Services (CAYLUS) said the 12-year-old had taken a bottle of petrol to sniff with his cousins.
"We think with Opal in the region, the number of sniffers have dropped from 500 to about 20," he said.
"They have tried and tried to sniff it. The kids were really committed to sniffing but they just didn't get the high.....
"Unfortunately while his cousins were fine, this young man died."
Mr Ray said that despite the recommendations of a 2005 inquest into petrol sniffing, governments had failed to establish basic youth services in remote parts of the Northern Territory.
"The Opal strategy was always supposed to be part of a wider plan to improve the quality of life of young people in remote communities, to reduce their desire to abuse substances," said Mr Ray.
"Youth services address boredom and also substance abuse.
"Without a serious commitment of resources there is a real danger that other remote youth like this young man will experiment with drugs and other dangerous behaviours with tragic consequences."
Mr Ray said the young man who died while sniffing in Hermannsburg did not inhale while summer school holiday programs were operating.
"Our workers reported that he was the first one there and the last to leave on every day of the program," he said.
"There is an opportunity to positively engage at risk people like this young man. This opportunity is being lost in remote communities like Hermannsburg due to lack of basic youth services."
- AAP
