'Teenager died after inhaling lighter fuel', say police
A teenager has died after overdosing on cigarette lighter fuel.
Daniel Dennis, 19, of Corringham, Essex, was declared dead in hospital after sniffing the gas in a car.
The youngster's parents, Mick, 47, and Elaine, urged other parents to beware of the dangers posed to children by solvent abuse.
Police said Mr Dennis, a trainee builder who had just completed a brick laying course, became ill in a car park in Corringham on Friday.
He had been in his "treasured" 1992 Vauxhall Astra GLS car.
"Friends have told police he was spraying fuel from a can of Swan liquid gas into his mouth," said a police spokesman.
"A warning on the can states that solvent abuse can kill instantly."
The spokesman said Mr Dennis had been taken to Basildon General Hospital where he had been declared dead less than an hour after being taken ill.
Post-mortem tests showed that he had died as a result of brain damage caused by the lighter fuel.
Mr Dennis's death came less than a week after 19-year-old Lorna Spinks, a student at Anglia Polytechnic University, Cambridge, died after taking ecstasy.
