A ‘sweet’ boy died after participating in a social media ‘craze’ called Chroming, which had been shared on TikTok, an inquest has heard.
Oliver Gorman, 12, was found in his bedroom on the evening of May 5 this year, after arriving from holiday at the family home in Hyde, in Tameside, Greater Manchester.
He later died in the hospital, and investigators found empty deodorant bottles in his room, and a post-mortem found he died as a result of the inhalation of butane gas, a propellant found in many aerosol deodorants.
A coroner has now raised a ‘major concern’ about the spread of these so-called challenges on TikTok, and accused the platform of ‘disseminating these challenges quite happily’ – making them ‘easily accessible’ to impressionable youngsters.
He is also calling for better warning labels and potential age restrictions on buying aerosol deodorants following the tragedy.
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Oliver’s mother, Clare Gillespie, described Oliver a ‘sweet’ and ‘lovely, family boy’.
Yesterday, an inquest at South Manchester Coroner’s Court heard how the family had been away on a family break in Wales and returned on a bank holiday Monday.
When they arrived back, Oliver ‘said he was tired’ and went to his bedroom, the hearing was told.
When he didn’t respond to his mum’s calls, she went upstairs and into his room, where she found him unresponsive. As she tried to rouse him, an empty bottle of Lynx deodorant fell from his bed, the inquest heard.
He wasn’t breathing, so the emergency services were alerted, and his mum began CPR. He was declared dead at 7.31pm.
Ms Gillespie told the inquest she believed that the transition from primary school to high school was ‘too much’ for Oliver, who was in his first year at Denton Community Academy.
She said he ‘kind of went into himself a bit’ and that ‘you could see something wasn’t quite right.’
The inquest heard there was ‘some concern’ from his mum that he was being bullied, after he had confided in his big brother. However, there were ‘no specifics’, ‘no names’ and ‘nothing concrete’, the inquest was told.
Detective Inspector Ian Parker said officers had been unable to gain access to Oliver’s electronic devices other than an Oculus headset, where nothing other than ‘banter’ was found.
The officer said of the alleged bullying: ‘My impression was it was words, very harsh words based on physicality, how he looked, that kind of thing.’
Denton Community Academy Principal, Donald Cumming, said that ‘if there had been names we would have been able to act immediately’ but that without them the school were in a ‘really difficult position.’
The hearing was told people had been known to ‘get a high from inhaling the contents’ of aerosols.
A number of empty Lynx and Aldi own-brand aerosol deodorant bottles were found in Oliver’s room following the tragedy.
Detective Sergeant Kate Dawson, from Greater Manchester Police (GMP), said she was aware of people previously abusing deodorants, but never previously a child and that in her 23 years as a police officer, this was the first time she’d seen a child die from it.
The pathologist who carried out Oliver’s post-mortem said that Butane gas can cause cardiac issues and that ‘these may be fatal.’
The inquest heard it wasn’t known if Oliver was on TikTok himself, or where he had become aware of the ‘craze.’ It was also not known if it was the first time he had attempted it.
What is ‘chroming’?
Chroming, also known as huffing or sniffing, is a word first used in Australia to describe the act of inhaling the fumes of chrome-based paint.
It now refers more broadly to inhaling fumes from other substances like solvent, aerosol cans, nail polish, cleaning products or petrol.
This also includes nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, which is often sold as whipped cream canisters and is inhaled through balloons. That too has been linked with deaths.
Sniffing these chemicals produces a short-lived high comparable to drinking alcohol.
It can include feelings of light-headedness, relaxation, drowsiness, giddiness excitement, even euphoria and mild hallucinations.
The terminology and the act have had long lives, first appearing on Urban Dictionary in 2006.
But more recently ‘chroming’ found popularity with younger generations on platforms such as TikTok, where youngsters posted videos of themselves inhaling toxic fumes.
TikTok has since blocked the search for trends such as chroming.
His mum added: ‘I don’t believe he did it to take his life. I don’t think he had the balls to do that. I think it was something that had gone terribly wrong. ‘I can’t solely blame a bully, I can’t solely blame TikTok.’
Ms Gillespie said youngsters could ‘start by watching TikTok videos about local bands and such like’ but that it could then ‘lead you down a dark road and causes these children to watch these videos.’
‘Every teenage boy gets a Lynx set in his stocking at Christmas, that’s what frightens me,’ she added.
Assistant Coroner Andrew Bridgman recorded a conclusion of misadventure. He said Oliver ‘must have been feeling a bit low’ but that there was ‘no evidence’ to ‘suggest he deliberately inhaled the aerosol with the intention of ending his own life.’
However, the coroner said it was ‘quite frightening what’s put out there on social media, which affects the young minds of people such as Oliver.’
Following his death, a campaign was launched by his family and their friends called Oliver’s Awareness, firstly raising awareness about bullying and cyberbullying. Oliver’s mum Ms Gillespie said she now hoped to raise awareness of social media crazes and the dangers of aerosols.
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