The Bethlehem National Guardsman who died in March while serving in Iraq accidentally killed himself by inhaling pressurized air from the type of can people use to blow dust off their computer keyboards.
By most accounts, Frederick Carlson IV, 25, was a gung-ho guardsman who volunteered for dangerous missions, but he died after “huffing” the common office product Dust-Off, according to an Army investigation report.
Carlson, a Liberty High School graduate who served with the 228th Forward Support Battalion, was a cook who could have remained inside the security line at his base in Taqqadum, west of Baghdad. Still, he volunteered for duty on the rapid-response force, providing security for military convoys in hot spots like Fallujah and Tikrit.
“He could have stayed on base, yet he volunteered for dangerous missions outside the wire,” said Capt. Cory Angell, a public affairs specialist for the Pennsylvania National Guard. “He was such a good kid and a good soldier. It’s tragic that he got caught up in using inhalants.”
Several of Carlson’s relatives live in eastern Pennsylvania, including his fiancee, Christina Ruiz, and their son, Carlson V. They declined to comment on the death determination.
The Morning Call got a copy of the 23-page Army report after requesting one under the Freedom of Information Act.
According to the report, in which several passages are redacted, Carlson went to sleep after returning from a mission at 6 a.m. March 26. He awoke before 4:30 p.m., and fellow soldiers saw him returning from the shower. Members of his unit found him unconscious in his room just before 6 p.m. and couldn’t revive him.
Investigators found a can of Dust-Off on the floor near his bunk, and a colleague said he recalled Carlson had huffed Dust-Off at least once before, in October 2005.
“Spc. Carlson died an accidental death from fluorocarbon toxicity as a result of inhaling pressurized air,” the report states.
Though the label on Dust-Off warns that inhaling it can be fatal, Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim, who investigates 4,000 deaths a year, said he has never seen such a case. But he said the principles are the same as in the deaths he’s seen after people huffed chemical vapors such as nail polish, paint thinner or glue to get high.
Through inhaling, the chemical replaces oxygen in the person’s lungs and eventually blood, causing excitation, drowsiness, lightheadedness and sometimes irritation. When too much oxygen is replaced, the person can pass out and die, Grim said.
Because each person’s tolerance level is different and there is no formula for how much to inhale, huffing is extremely dangerous, Grim said.
Military officials said of the more than 2,800 soldiers who have died in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, more than 400 were noncombat deaths from things such as vehicle accidents or heart attacks. Of those, only three were from accidental or intentional drug overdose, according to the Defense Manpower Data Center.
Angell said Carlson’s is the only Iraq war death attributed to inhaling Dust-Off.
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