Thursday, August 12, 2010

Bitterant Sucks!

I'm sure you've all heard about kids huffing anything they can get their hands on, including cans of air.  They've put in safe guards to keep kids from getting their hands on cans of air by requiring ID to buy a can of air and an age minimum.  Apparently this was not enough to deter kids (really, has this ever been that effective for kids who want to get their hands on something??), so they decided to create "Bitterant Technology."  Bitterant technology is an additive to cans of air that, in theory, tastes so bitter when huffed that kids won't be tempted.  I don't know much about huffing or any drug use for that matter, but I have known plenty of addicts (when I was a therapist) and there's not a whole lot of anything that would prevent someone from getting high.

Let me tell you what Bitterant DOES do...  It makes this cloud of bitter tasting air around your keyboard as you try to clean it.  Then..just when you think you've gotten the awful taste and scratchiness out of the back of your throat...you discover that your fingers are now striking the keys that you just cleaned with this awful substance.  And THEN you discover just how often you touch your mouth AND how many things you touch make their way into your mouth.  The latter is truly remarkable, at least it was to me.

After spending the better part of yesterday tasting bitterant and being unable to get the taste off my lips, I woke up to discover/remember the taste all over again.  I've tried to wash anything I touched yesterday and wiped down my laptop.  I'm HOPING this will take care of it.

So what have I learned from Bitterant Technology??  Not to buy it!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

a. PLEASE!!! Learn that this is NOT air- it is a gas that is toxic if abused.
b. for information on inhalant abuse see http://www.inhalants.org/
c. For more info on the good things bitterants do see www.Bitrex.com

Jill said...

Whatever so-called "good" bitterants can do, why must the rest of us be punished with this toxic substance? But can't it be something that could somehow be removed with something? I've washed with soap and water, washed with kombucha, washed with vingegar, washed with soap and water again and it is STILL THERE. Why does someone else's addiction have to ruin my entire day?

Unknown said...

I was just trying to get the cat fur out of my laptop keyboard. Geez. Now because of a bunch of instant gratification junkies my hands, mouth and keyboard taste like charbroiled ass. Thanks a million!

After an all day quest for a remedy, I have discovered that olive oil will get the nasty stuff off your skin.

Unknown said...

If you ever have to clean up Bitrex/denatonium again try this:
"Denatonium benzoate is unstable in strong oxidizing agents such as chlorine bleach and hydrogen peroxide."
See
http://www.cpsc.gov//PageFiles/96066/aversive.pdf

Unknown said...

Get off your high horse douche, the fact that it deters us from using it for it's intended purpose is the subject, not teen druggies. They still sell whip cream chargers which are just as easy for kids to get their hands on. The only people inconvenienced by this are those using the product for it's proper use.