A 12-year-old boy died from inhaling deodorant in what his family and coroner suspect was part of a social media ‘craze’.
Oliver Gorman was found unresponsive in his bedroom in May this year, less than an hour after the family had returned from a holiday.
Mum Clare Gillespie, 42, began CPR at the home in Hyde, Tameside, before emergency services airlifted him to Tameside General Hospital.
But despite extensive resuscitation attempts, he could could not be saved.
A post-mortem found he died as a result of the inhalation of butane, a propellant found in many aerosol deodorants.
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Several empty Lynx and Aldi deodorant cans were found lying around Oliver’s room, his inquest at South Manchester Coroners’ Court in Stockport heard.
The court was told about a social media craze, said to be particularly popular on TikTok, known as ‘chroming’ or ‘huffing’, in which people film themselves getting high from the fumes of products such as deodorants.
Police and his family were unable to gain access to his phone so it is not known whether he was aware of the trend or had filmed himself inhaling the deodorants.
Assistant coroner Andrew Bridgman concluded Oliver did not intend to take his own life, saying he believed it was a case of ‘recreational enjoyment’ that went ‘tragically wrong’.
He recorded a conclusion of misadventure.
Mr Bridgman raised a ‘major concern’ about the spread of the so-called challenges on TikTok and accused the platform of ‘disseminating these challenges quite happily’, making them ‘easily accessible’ to impressionable youngsters.
He called for better warning labels and potential age restrictions on buying aerosol deodorants.
Oliver’s mum, Ms Gillespie said in court: ‘Every Christmas we had a standing joke that we had never had so much chocolate and so much deodorant from gift sets.
‘Every teenage boy gets a Lynx set in his stocking for Christmas – and that’s what frightens me.’
Speaking after the hearing, she told the Manchester Evening News she was oblivious to the risks, adding: ‘We just want to raise awareness for children and parents.
‘It was the speed of it. He had 20 minutes in his bedroom and he was gone.
‘We don’t want any mother or father to have to do what I had to do for my boy… the CPR and mouth-to-mouth. I will never get that image out of my head.’
Ms Gillespie, a hairdresser for more than 25 years, added that she’d never heard of ‘chroming’ and as someone who worked around hairspray for years, never knew solvents could kill.
‘All I knew about solvents was that they were flammable. I didn’t know they could kill you, especially that quick,’ she said.
She urged parents not to buy them, saying: ‘Don’t have them in your home. Take every precaution you can. Listen to your gut. I never thought it would happen to my child.’
Ms Gillespie said she planned to take Oliver’s phone back to the manufacturer to see if they could ‘jailbreak it’, in the hope it could provide more answers.
As well as writing to the British Aerosol Manufacturers’ Association regarding ‘inadequate’ warning labels, and the Business Secretary about potential age restrictions on buying them, coroner Mr Bridgman said he would write to the Culture Secretary on his concerns about TikTok.
Ms Gillespie, meanwhile, spoke about the worrying evolution of social media.
‘I joined Facebook to speak to relatives in Australia, that’s what social media was invented for,’ she said.
‘Now there’s people on there daring children to take their own lives or to do something that could end up in horrendous circumstances.’
She said the family had moved to start a new life in Shropshire as there was ‘too much heartache’ and ‘too much pain’ for them in Tameside. ‘I still feel a lot of numbness, a lot of upset,’ she added.
When asked, TikTok did not provide a statement to the media, however it shared ‘background’ information.
A spokesperson said the company has ‘not received any requests from the coroner’, adding: ‘Nor have we had any engagement with law enforcement in relation to this case, but we would engage where required.’
They said TikTok does not allow ‘videos showing or promoting dangerous activity or challenges’ and that ’99 per cent’ of rule-breaking content is ‘proactively’ found before it is reported.
The spokesperson said warnings about inhalant abuse go back ‘decades’ and that ‘chroming’ cannot ‘be described as a TikTok craze’.
‘There is no evidence of this type of content trending on our platform,’ they explained.
‘If a user searches for “huffing”, they are shown a warning titled “Be informed and aware”, which continues “Some substances can be dangerous when used or misused”, before directing the user to a page where they can seek support in relation to substance abuse,’ the spokesperson said.
‘When someone tries to search for a known dangerous challenge, no results are shown.’
Clare and family friends have set up the ‘Oliver’s Awareness’ campaign, initially focussed on spreading awareness of the signs of bullying and cyberbullying.
The inquest was told Denton Community Academy pupil Oliver told his brother about alleged bullying at school.
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