Sniffing kills another man in Nunavik

Police are not releasing the name of a 24-year-old man who died recently from sniffing naphtha camping gas in Purvinituq.

Capt. Larry Hubert, who oversees the Kativik Regional Police Force in Nunavik’s Hudson Bay communities, said the man was found dead in a shack on Aug. 23, half an hour after he was last seen alive.

The death came one week after a 22-year-old man dropped dead in Kuujjuaraapik as he was walking between the community’s two bars.

Autopsy results are not available yet, but police have been told the younger man was sniffing Honda glue or plumber’s glue for two days prior to his death. The sniffing caused a heart attack.

Hubert said many people don’t realize that sniffing can be fatal.

“We know it causes brain damage,” he said. “But it is fatal. It can happen the first time they sniff.”

Hubert said he has no legal means of detaining or monitoring known sniffers, and can only help intoxicated people reach medical attention at the local nursing station.